Newsmaker: The problem that is Narayan Rane

There is an award-winning Marathi novel where the problem of the protagonist is that nothing much is happening in his life. The current travails of Narayan Rane, former chief minister of Maharashtra, are somewhat similar.

Once a powerful leader in the state from coastal Konkan, the 65-year-old Rane founded the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP) in early October, with the hope that he would be inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet sooner than later. His party is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

Known as one of the more efficient CMs of Maharashtra on the strength of a brief tenure nearly two decades earlier, the career of the Shiv Sainik-turned Congressman-turned MSP founder seems to be going nowhere. It was no coincidence that Fadnavis was at Rane’s residence during the 10-day Ganesh festival earlier this year. Later, Rane said Lord Ganesha has always given him whatever he had asked for, indicating an announcement about his joining the BJP could be made soon.

The BJP is yet to make a dent in Konkan. In recent years, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has made deep inroads into the region, generally the Shiv Sena bastion. Rane wanted to join the BJP but the internal dynamic in the ruling party is such that it does not want him along with his two sons, Nitesh and Nilesh. Fadnavis has announced Rane would be made a cabinet minister from the BJP quota.

Nitesh is a Congress MLA from Devgad in Rane’s pocket borough of Sindhudurg district in the Konkan region. In the previous Assembly election, Narayan Rane was defeated from his native Kudal by the Shiv Sena’s Vaibhav Naik in what was seen as a deep operation to marginalise the leader in state politics. Rane’s problems began from the defeat.

Now, even getting the BJP to sponsor him to the Legislative Council has become a problem. He stayed away from the by-elections for a lone seat to the council earlier this month, caused by his own resignation after he quit the Congress a few months earlier. Once a loyal Shiv Sainik, Rane is now a bitter foe of the Sena, formal ally of the BJP at both the state and the Centre. It is believed that BJP national chief Amit Shah wants to get in Rane to keep Sena in check. The state BJP is not particularly enthusiastic, knowing Rane as an ambitious leader, with sights on the chief ministership.

The Sena had let it be known that admitting Rane in the BJP would be an unfriendly act. The Fadnavis government depends upon the Sena’s support. The CM had a meeting with Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray nearly a month before. The stated agenda was a smooth winter session of the state legislature. The unstated agenda is something else.

In the post-Gujarat situation, opposition parties in the state are in an upbeat mood and the talk of a Congress-NCP alliance is gaining momentum.  In such a scenario, it is expected the BJP will have to take the Sena’s concerns on board.

Elections to legislative assembly are scheduled in October 2019 but could be held along with the Lok Sabha poll in May 2019, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi having emphasised the need for simultaneous polls to Parliament and states. So, there is some urgency about a decision on Rane. The question is how long he will wait.