Rane follows mentor, launches Marathi daily 'Prahar'

Mumbai, Oct 9 (UNI) Estranged Shiv Sainik and now Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has toed the line of his mentor Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, as he launched his Marathi daily ''Prahar''.

Mr Rane himself is the editorial advisor, while his sons Nilesh and Nitesh Rane are the directors of the newspaper, which was launched yesterday in presence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Cooperation Minister Patangrao Kadam.

Mr Rane wrote a two column news item on the front page of the daily, in which he paid his gratitude to Mr Thackeray. ''It is due to Mr Thackeray that I rose from my humble origins and touched the heights of political arena,'' he wrote.

It may be recalled that Mr Rane, who was a corporator since 1985 and was Chief Minister for nine months in the Shiv Sena-BJP reign, fell out of the Party due to differences with Party executive president Uddhav Thackeray in July 2005 and joined the Congress.

Recently Public Works Department Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a former Shiv Sena strongman and now NCP heavyweight, withdrew a defamation case against Mr Thackeray following a request from Shiv Sena mouthpiece ''Saamna'' executive editor Sanjay Raut and publisher Subhash Desai.

In the last two decades, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ganesh Naik, Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray have left the Shiv Sena.

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