After former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new team as minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in July, he was asked to tour Maharashtra and the Konkan region.
The idea behind this move was to strengthen the BJP’s foothold in the Konkan region and to kick-started preparations for the crucial civic body elections due in the state in February 2022. Another goal of the BJP was to give a tough fight to the Shiv Sena in its strongholds, including the Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The row between Shiv Sena and Rane over his controversial statement of wanting to “slap Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray”, and his subsequent arrest, has sent the political corridors in Maharashtra speculating about Shiv Sena’s flexing of muscles and how there seems to be no way for the old allies to come together again in the near future.
Rane was arrested on Tuesday after sparking off a row over his remarks about slapping Thackeray for what he claimed was the latter’s ignorance of the year of India’s independence. Rane was taken into custody by police in coastal Ratnagiri district, where he is travelling as part of the Jan Ashirwad Yatra.
Rane, who is expected to increase the BJP’s chances in the BMC elections next year, is known as a ‘Sena baiter’. He played an instrumental role in the preparation of the report on Maratha reservation. The issue has since picked up pace in the Maharashtra’s political circles.
The very public feud between Rane and Shiv Sena is not new and goes back to the year 2005 when Rane, after spending close to three decades in Shiv Sena, quit the party after a fallout with Thackrey.
Born in April 1952, Rane started his political career while he was in his twenties. His initiation into politics took place as a member of the Shiv Sena when he became a local Shakha Pramukh at Chembur, Mumbai. Appointed chief minister by Balasaheb Thackeray in 1999, when then CM Manohar Joshi was asked to step down from the post, Rane was expelled from the Shiv Sena in 2005 on account of anti-party activities. He later joined the Congress and was immediately made revenue minister of the state.
Post the 2008 Mumbai attack, Vilasrao Deshmukh stepped down and Ashok Chavan was made chief minister. This agitated Rane, who claimed he was promised the CM post by the Congress high command. Rane protested against the party high command, which led to his suspension. However, after he apologised, his suspension was revoked.
He contested the 2014 election from Konkan on Congress’s ticket, which he lost. Congress again gave him a ticket to contest the bypoll election for the legislative assembly seat of Bandra East constituency but Rane lost this election to the Shiv Sena candidate. Later, in 2017, Rane with his sons Nitesh and Nilesh floated his own party ‘Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha’, and openly announced that they will support the BJP in the state.
Rane’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra, which he is set to resume after getting bail, is part of the BJP’s early campaign for the BMC elections.
In 2017, Sena and the BJP, which alliance partners in the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government then, had contested against each in the BMC polls. The contest for 227 wards saw BJP winning 82 seats. Sena won 84.
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