Mumbai: 

Downfall: Congress leaders say hoardings wishing Narayan Rane  on his birthday are responsible for his slide in the party. FILE PIC

Innocuous as it may seem, hoardings like the one in the picture, wishing Revenue Minister Narayan Rane on his birthday, may well be the cause of Rane's slide in the Congress. Rane is currently facing a lot of flak over the fracas at the Congress convention in Goregaon. Congress workers have alleged that Rane's supporters were involved in the ugly incident that upset party chief Sonia Gandhi and several top leaders. However, if top Congress leaders are to be believed, Rane's slide in the party began the day these hoardings were put up.

The hoarding, put up by Rane's closest aides Ravi Shendge and Viju Vichare, shows a huge image of Rane, while Sonia's image is placed insignificantly below, along with Rane's sons Nitin and Nilesh and other party cadre. Around 100 such hoardings were put up across Mumbai in places like Dadar, Dahisar, Malad and Borivli on April 9. However, on April 11, they were nowhere to be seen.

What happened

Congress leaders revealed what transpired behind closed doors. Rane's detractors in the party clicked photographs of the hoardings and sent a CD to the Congress high command in New Delhi on April 10. Then, a senior Congress leader, sympathetic to CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, is learnt to have taken over. While it is not known whether Sonia saw the photos, other influential Congress leaders saw the CD.

By then, Rane's sympathisers, Maharashtra in-charge Margaret Alva and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Prabha Rau got a whiff of the proceedings. "The two immediately called up Rane, and after giving him a verbal thrashing, asked him to remove the hoardings immediately. Therefore, these hoardings were removed," said a Congress leader.

Rane's aide Shendge was unnerved by the development, but when this paper spoke to him, he denied any role in the matter. "What hoardings? We have never put up any hoardings, they must have been put up by some one else," said Shendge.