Narayan Rane Caught In A Piquant Situation As Enemies Unite Against Him 

Mahesh Vijapurkar

Narayan Rane is in a piquant situation. He resigned from the Congress to plight his troth to the Bharatiya Janata Party, and vacated his Legislative Council seat. He had miscalculated of regaining it almost automatically with the help of the new ally. But that is not happening, for his former – or his first love – has threatened BJP with blue murder were BJP to take Rane seriously.

Shiv Sena with its 63 seats against BJP’s 122, is a partner in the Devendra Fadnavis-led government and its understandable fear is that Sena would pull the rug from under its shaky feet. Sena has not been a trustworthy partner, and has been partaking of power with BJP, and simultaneously acting as an Opposition, more effectively than Congress and NCP put together. It is hunting with the hounds and running with the hare.

Sena’s grief is so strong against Rane, once its chief minister who suddenly replaced Manohar Joshi, that nothing but its animus would prevail – at least that is what Sena has been saying, and that is what the public and political perception is. And had Rane tried to regain his MLC’s seat, both the Congress and BJP were willing to throw their weight behind Sena or accept support.

This former-Sainik and now the ex-Congressman is variously described as a stormy petrel or of a strong nuisance value by the party which hosts him as a member. He had thought it would be as easy to secure the Congress high command’s support to replace Ashok Chavan in the top job or in the party, or likewise with Prithviraj Chavan. He had assumed that it would be as easy as it was to persuade Bal Thackeray.

His impatience and his self-above-all-else approach to politics, especially intra-party affairs, has been the cause of his problems even within his long-nursed constituency. It came to such a pass that he and his son lost their bailiwicks in the 2014 elections. He failed to win a Mumbai Assembly seat too thereafter, and now has to fight to get his Konkan base under his tutelage. He is now supposed to do it on his own, and if he won, gets BJP’s appreciation.

So wary has the BJP to take him under its wings, knowing his penchant for petulance which flare into sudden aggression, that the preference was Rane set up his own party, however small it be, and ally. The membership of BJP, which has opened its arms to any from any ideology if the intent was loyalty to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, was denied. Rane lobbied hard, but inclusion in the cabinet suddenly became dependent on Sena’s approval.

Sena has refused to sit in the same cabinet with Rane as its member, and the consequences were clearly outlined by Uddhav Thackeray time and again when Rane’s migration process began. It indeed must be a bitter pill for the man to swallow when his former enemy – he had denounced Sena in the most acrimonious manner when quitting it – held the trump card and he could do little at his own initiative to further his and his family’s political prospects.

Unlike usual Council elections, where with multiple seats being vacant, quotas of votes from MLAs are smaller, but in a byelection, it is not so. Rane would have had to secure half plus one of the entire Assembly strength present and voting for him to regain his seat, but suddenly he has united the entire warring Opposition which sees Shiv Sena’s spitefulness as its icing on the cake. It does not, therefore, appear that Narayan Rane has been an asset to the BJP so far.