Last week, Mumbai witnessed a bizarre drama on its streets.
Two independent lawmakers from the state – MP Navneet Kaur Rana and her husband and 3-time MLA Ravi Rana - said they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The dare raised the hackles of the Shiv Sena. The duo had previously clashed with the Sena in Amravati over the issue of installing a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (The statue installed by the Rana couple was removed by the Amravati Municipal Corporation, leading to a tense face-off).
As the TRP-hungry media covered their every move, angry Shiv Sainiks gathered in front of the couple's house. Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut termed them 'Bunty and Babli' and said the BJP was firing from their shoulders.
Also read: Sedition case against Ranas untenable
Then the script went awry. The Ranas backed off from the challenge. Cops arrived at their home as the rattled Uddhav government decided to hit back. The duo was arrested, various IPC sections, including sedition, invoked and shipped off to different jails.
Did the two anticipate all this? One can never say, but what the whole episode did was catapult the little-known couple onto the national stage.
Both 36, the Ranas follow their own path and seem to have mastered the art of making headlines. The duo’s USP is their ‘independent’ status, which allows them to take risks as well as cultivate support across parties.
It is no wonder that the husband and wife—known as ‘Mama’ and ‘Vahini’ in their constituencies of Badnera and Amravati—have led an eventful and controversial life under the limelight.
Ravi Rana hails from Shankarnagar in Amravati. A graduate, the big moment in his life came in 2009 when he defeated the NCP from the Badnera seat in the Vidhan Sabha polls. Two more wins followed in 2014 and 2019.
He garnered substantial followers after he undertook a hunger strike in 2011 demanding a higher price for cotton.
Love at Ramdev camp
The same year Navneet came into his life. She was yet to make her political debut but had made a mark in the world of films.
Born and brought up in a Punjabi family in Mumbai, Navneet took up modelling and appeared in half a dozen music videos after college.
Movies followed. She made her feature film debut in 2000 with Darshan, a Kannada film, which was followed by a Telugu movie. Navneet got a chance to act in films starring Kannada actor Darshan, Tamil star Vijayakanth and Malayalam superstar Mammootty.
Navneet and Ravi met each other at a Baba Ramdev camp in Bandra; love blossomed. The yoga guru brought the two families together and they tied the knot in Amravati in a mass-marriage event.
Navneet took the political plunge in 2014 by contesting the Amravati seat on an NCP ticket but lost to Shiv Sena stalwart Anand Adsul. But she avenged her defeat in 2019 when she contested from the same seat. Supported by the NCP and the Congress, she defeated Adsul who is close to the Thackeray family.
She was one of the few independent candidates to win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls despite the Narendra Modi wave.
On the Amravati-Badnera stretch in Maharashtra, which the Ranas represent, huge cutouts of the two are a common sight. Ravi Rana seems to have a thing for flexes, which has earned him the name ‘Flex Kumar’.
They enjoy a huge following in the belt due to their outfit - Yuva Swabhiman Paksha.
BJP ties
Politically, the couple is independent, but they have flirted with the BJP before.
From 2014-19, Ravi Rana was close to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government led by then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who is now Leader of Opposition. The Ranas are also very close to Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, the bête noire of the Thackerays.
In 2019, when Maharashtra produced a fractured mandate, Ravi Rana tried to cobble up the support of Independents and smaller groups for the BJP, but did not fully succeed.
In Parliament, Navneet has supported the Narendra Modi government on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu & Kashmir and celebrated the Ram mandir verdict.
When the Mumbai row broke out, the BJP got a chance to target the Sena and the party supported the couple.
Mumbai-based political analyst Prakash Akolkar says due to the controversy, “the couple not only got national attention, but it also gave a chance to the BJP to bring vested interests against the Shiv Sena on one stage”.
Navneet is also battling another controversy that has reached the SC. In June 2021, Navneet’s caste status had come under the scanner, with the Bombay High Court cancelling her SC certificate. The Supreme Court later stayed the high court's order and the matter is still pending.
Having climbed the political ladder, the Ranas are now behind bars and face their biggest test yet.
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