Rane at the news conference in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI)

Mumbai, July 8: As the clock ticked past 12.30 pm, Narayan Rane’s heart sank.

The trickle of MLAs ? only nine made it ? at the Shiv Sena rebel’s official bungalow belied his claim that he had the support of 22 legislators. Besides, most of the nine owe their political careers to the leader from Konkan.

Manik Kokate, an MLA from Sinnar, Shankar Kambli from Vengurla, Ganpat Kadam from Rajapur and Subhash Bane from Sangameshwar ? all from Konkan ? along with Vijay Vadettiwar from Chimur in Nagpur, Prakask Barsakle from Dangapur in Amravati, Kalidas Kolambkar from Mumbai, Shyam Sawant from Shrivardhan in Raigad and Vinayak Nimhan from Shivaji Nagar in Pune, trooped in this afternoon, but could not salvage Rane’s flop show.

Two others faxed their support.

The Sena succeeded in keeping its flock together ? 51 out of the 63 MLAs paraded before the Speaker yesterday by the Uddhav Thackeray group, herded together at Le Meridian Hotel in Andheri.

“They were locked inside the hotel, and even access to their mobile phones was denied,” Rane alleged at a news conference.

The tables seem to have been turned on the rebel. Two years ago, Rane was accused by the Nationalist Congress Party of locking Independent MLAs at Matoshree Club when he, along with Gopinath Munde, had masterminded an attempt to dislodge the Vilasrao Deshmukh regime.

Leaders of Sharad Pawar’s party had raided the club and “rescued” the MLAs, whose support was crucial for the Congress-NCP combine. The BJP-Sena eventually lost the vote of confidence.

Today, Rane remained defiant in defeat. He claimed that 26 Sena MLAs, apart from the nine who attended the meeting, are in touch with him and will support him.

He added that on Monday, he would “petition the Assembly Speaker” about the “disqualification” of the legislators who did not attend today’s meeting. Monday is the first day of the Maharashtra Assembly’s monsoon session. Rane said he would fight a legal battle against some MLAs for not turning up at his residence.

The Sena rebel admitted that he was in touch with Congress leaders, including chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Despite Rane’s attempt to topple the Deshmukh government in 2003, they share a cordial relationship.

Political circles were abuzz when Rane had a surprise lunch meeting with the chief minister during the budget session in March this year. He had invited Deshmukh to his chamber in Vidhan Bhavan to share a meal of Malwani fish curry.