Pratapsingh Rane, Goa’s longest-serving MLA and former Chief Minister, announced on Thursday that he will not run in the upcoming assembly elections amid family feuding.
The former six-time Goa chief minister has never lost an election and has represented Goa’s Poriem assembly constituency since 1972, even when Goa was still a Union territory and the constituency was known as Sattari.
If Rane had decided to run this time, he would have faced off against his own daughter-in-law Deviya Rane, wife of senior Rane’s son Vishwajit Rane, who has been a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2017, The Print reported.
The BJP has nominated Deviya Rane from the 82-year-stronghold old’s of Poriem, and Vishwajit from Valpoi, which he has represented since 2007, first as an independent, then as a Congress MLA, and most recently as a BJP MLA.
“I have spent 50 years in good, clean politics. I don’t need to fight an election to work for people. Being the head of the family, somebody needs to take a mature decision and I have decided to do so,” Pratapsingh Rane told The Print.
Pratapsingh Rane said he has been and would continue to be a staunch Congress worker. “I will vote for whoever the Congress chooses to nominate from the constituency.”
Vishwajit Rane warned his father last month to “gracefully retire” or things could get “very messy.” Rane’s decision to withdraw from the race will be a major setback for the Congress, which has held the seat safely for decades thanks to Rane’s influence.
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