Lok Sabha elections 2024: Candidate Narayan Rane’s task is to replace Sena with BJP

Union minister Narayan Rane at a press conference. File Pic/Sameer Markande

In what is seen as the beginning of a new mission for former CM and Union minister Narayan Rane, the Shiv Sainik-turned-Congressman-turned-BJP leader has been made the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. The BJP had thought of fielding the veteran instead of repeating him in the Rajya Sabha early this year because Rane has been tasked with replacing the ‘bow and arrow' with the ‘lotus' in the Konkan area where the undivided Sena continued to have a good run despite organisational upsets such as Raj Thackeray and Rane's exit in the first decade of the 21st century.

Rane had been given a similar mission when he had shifted to the Congress. His brief was to get all his rebel MLAs in Konkan and Mumbai re-elected, but it didn't happen the way it was expected. However, his elder son, Nilesh Rane won the 2009 Lok Sabha election for the Congress, but got beaten in 2014 and 2019 by the undivided Sena. He was in the Congress in 2014, and five years later, he contested as a nominee of the Rane family's short-lived Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, which was eventually merged with the BJP.

As a Congress leader, Rane had lost the Assembly election in Sindhudurg and a by-election in Bandra East, Mumbai, against the undivided Sena. However, his younger son Nitesh, one of the most vocal BJP leaders, has been winning in Sindhudurg. Rane senior was rehabilitated in the state's Upper House by the Congress, and later in the Rajya Sabha by the BJP, which has now influenced CM Eknath Shinde to give up his party's claim on Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. The tussle between the two parties continued for nearly 40 days after BJP's first list for Maharashtra was announced. One of Shinde's favourite ministers, Uday Samant, had claimed the constituency for his brother Kiran Samant. The Ranes and Samants were restrained from making nasty remarks as the negotiations went on.

On Thursday, the Samant brothers welcomed Rane's nomination and assured him of full cooperation. In this Lok Sabha seat, minister Samant is one of the MLAs, as is his cabinet/Sena colleague Deepak Kesarkar. Nitesh Rane (BJP) and Shekhar Nikam (NCP) make it four MLAs in support of the NDA. The remaining two MLAs are with Sena (UBT), one of them being Vaibhav Naik, who had beaten Narayan Rane in 2014. Thackeray Sena's sitting MP Vinayak Raut is Rane's opponent, who thrives on sympathy for Uddhav in the four Assembly segments that the Sena had won in 2019.

Rane's real challenge lies in getting Shinde Sena's votes transferred to him. Sena (UBT) succeeded in 2019 and even before it, despite inducting leaders from other parties. The BJP, Uddhav's ally at the time, did not have a big base here. In power then, Rane pulled off a victory for his son in 2009, but couldn't repeat it. In 2019, the saffron alliance didn't work here, because BJP's ally fought the Sena and lost. But that defeat kept the Rane family's animosity with Uddhav Thackeray kicking. Narayan Rane has been given yet another opportunity to get even with Uddhav. The BJP has put the Rane factor to the test for its relevance and utility for its Mission Konkan.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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