Finally, Pratapsingh Rane bows out; Cong finds new candidate for Poriem

Former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane bowed out of an electoral contest in Goa on Thursday, a decision that saw the climax of an intense family feud in which his son and BJP Minister Vishwajit played a part and the saffron party fielding the veteran leader's daughter-in-law against him.

Congress in the evening found a new candidate for Poreim - Ranjit Rane, a social activist who joined the party in 2019 and the son of Sattari's first MLA Jaysinghrao Rane of the then Praja Socialist Party in 1964.

For the past couple of months, the fight in the Rane family intensified with Vishwajit, who won on a Congress ticket in 2017 and then resigned to join the BJP to become a minister, threatening to contest against his father and appealing to him to "gracefully retire". Vishwajit had told BJP that he was willing to fight against his father if he contested while there has been talk about fielding his wife.

The family feud had initially prompted the Congress to put on hold announcing his name in the first list of candidates on December 16 last year after Congress president Sonia Gandhi was informed about the crisis. But six days later, the party announced his name after the seven-time Chief Minister decided to stay put in the fight from his traditional constituency.

However, the BJP's announcement on January to field Divya, wife of Vishwajit, turned the tables once again and there was pressure on the senior Rane to withdraw from the contest. On Thursday morning, he announced his decision, attributing it to health issues and not family feud.

Separately in Uttarakhand, Congress announced the candidature of sitting MLA Dhan Singh Negi as the candidate for Tehri after party's former Coordination Committee chairman Kishore Upadhyay joined BJP to fight from the seat.

However, the BJP MLA then decided to shift loyalties and joined the Congress, which gave him the ticket to contest from Tehri.

With this, Congress has announced candidates for all the 70 seats.

Goa and Uttarakhand will be going to polls on February 14 and the counting of votes will be held on March 10 along with three other states Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.