Congress corporator issues defamatory notice to Narayan Rane

Mumbai, Jun 23 (UNI) Congress corporator Sameer Desai today issued a defamatory notice against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane for his alleged remarks over the former's ''involvement in the ''ruckus'' ahead of party president Sonia Gandhi's address to the Congress convention in suburban Goregaon on June 19.

In the notice, Mr Desai alleged that Mr Rane, while addressing a news conference a day after the convention on June 20, had claimed that he and some other party activists had created trouble by shouting slogans against state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and in support of Mr Rane, besides hurling chairs and bottles at each other.

He said Mr Rane, in the press conference, had also made an allegation that the agitators were not his supporters. They did this to tarnish his image in the eyes of public and senior Congress leaders.

Mr Desai, who is nephew of former Mumbai Congress president Gurudas Kamat, demanded that Mr Rane should withdraw his statement or he would file a complaint against him under the defamation act.

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