Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Sindhudurg politics involving the Ranes takes a new turn

Mumbai: The South Konkan region of Maharashtra is known for its picturesque beaches, hill forts, sea forts, lush green environs, fish, mangoes, cashews and quiet locations - but when it comes to political supremacy, the battle could be fierce.

The twin districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg - with Arabian Sea on one side and the Sahyadri mountain range on the other, are seeing a remarkable shift in political dynamics.

The Rane family is often synonymous with South Konkan politics.

The head of the family, Narayan Rane, popularly known as Dada, is known to make comebacks.

Both his sons - Nilesh and Nitesh - will be contesting the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections.

Once known for ‘money order economy’, the Konkan region is often referred to as the ‘karma-bhoomi’ of Shiv Sena founded by the late Balasaheb Thackeray for the welfare of the Marathi-manoos and Hindutva.

Rane is currently a BJP MP from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat after defeating two-time MP Vinayak Raut, a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray.

The six Assembly segments - are divided in the Ratnagiri (Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Rajapur) and Sindhudurg (Kankavli, Kudal and Sawantwadi).

Nitesh, a two-term MLA - 2014 (Congress) and 2019 (BJP), will attempt a hattrick from Kankavli on a BJP ticket.

Nilesh, a former MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg - 2009 (Congress). However, he lost 2014 polls while in Congress and in 2019 as a member of Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha.

Nilesh has now joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and would be contesting the Kudal seat.

Under late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, the senior Rane started off as a Corporator of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and became the Chairman of BrihanMumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST).

In 1995, when the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power under Manohar Joshi, he became the Revenue Minister. Rane was Chief Minister from 1 February to 17 October, 1999.

He was then the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly from 1999 to 2005 - but Balasaheb had to expel him for raising a banner of revolt against Uddhav Thackeray.

He subsequently joined the Congress and held the Revenue, Industry, Port and Employment portfolios in the state Cabinet - under various Chief Ministers - Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.

Rane's main grudge was that despite a promise, he was not made the Chief minister by the Congress.

In the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls from Kudal, he lost the elections and later a bye-election from Vandre East in Mumbai (Bandra East) too.

He aspired to become the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President but that too did not materialise.

He was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from 2016 to 2017, but he resigned from Congress.

He formed his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP), and was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP nomination in 2018. Later, he merged the MSP with BJP.

At the induction ceremony of Nilesh into Shiv Sena, ministers Uday Samant (Ratnagiri) and Deepak Kesarkar (Sawantwadi) were present.

“It was essential to bring everyone on the same page. Samant and Kesarkar had earlier been part of undivided NCP headed by Sharad Pawar and undivided Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray. On the other hand, Ranes were on the other side. However, now with BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP together managing things, the old issues are sorted out,” informed sources said.