The shifting sands in Konkan’s electoral battlefield are seeing a number of former friends turn foes while yesterday’s enemies have become newfangled partners in marriages of political convenience. Nilesh Rane, ex-MP and son of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane, announced his decision to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and contest from the Kudal Assembly seat in the upcoming state elections.
The Kudal Assembly segment is currently held by the Rane clan’s long-time rival, Vaibhav Naik, who is from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).
Ex-Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, once a Shiv Sena strongman, and later Congressman, was the unchallenged king of his fiefdom of Kudal, being its legislator for six terms. However, when in the Congress, he was trounced comprehensively by Vaibhav Naik (in the undivided Shiv Sena) in the 2014 Assembly elections by a margin of more than 10,000 votes in a result that ultimately led to a Sena renascence in the Konkan region.
Now, with the Shiv Sena split vertically, Nilesh’s joining the Eknath Shinde-led Sena will give him an opportunity not just to politically rehabilitate himself but avenge his father’s defeat as well.
In the past, Rane’s fallouts with his former aides-turned-nemesis - Rajan Teli and Ravindra Phatak, and bête noire Deepak Kesarkar, had undercut his hold over the Konkan region.
Today, in a twist owing to political expediency, Kesarkar, who joined CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena after his revolt split Uddhav Thackeray’s undivided Sena, is now aligned with the BJP, placing him and Rane on the same side. Kesarkar, an erstwhile bete noire of Rane, is now banking on the latter’s support to retain his hold on the Sawantwadi Assembly segment, also part of the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency as Rane is the incumbent MP.
In the 2019 Assembly poll, Rane, who had just joined the BJP, had strained every sinew to beat candidates of the undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray in the 14 Assembly segments in three districts of the Konkan. However, his efforts had come a cropper as the undivided Shiv Sena had effortlessly retained its strongholds, winning nine of 14 segments. At the time, Deepak Kesarkar beat independent candidate Rajan Teli, a close Rane aide, by 13,228 votes in Sawantwadi.
Today, in a supreme irony, Kesarkar – Rane’s foe-turned-friend – is likely to face BJP leader Rajan Teli, once Rane’s protégé, who recently joined Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).
Adding to the byzantine political twists in this region is Kiran Samant, who is from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and has been fielded as the Mahayuti’s candidate for the Rajapur Assembly segment, also part of the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency.
At the time of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP, after much delay, had finally announced Union Minister Rane as the ruling Mahayuti coalition’s candidate for the contentious Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, to the intense chagrin of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which had staked its claim over the seat.
Kiran Samant, brother of Shinde camp Minister Uday Samant, had been eagerly vying for a ticket and was believed to be on the verge of rebellion. However, Kiran had taken a step back and ended up supporting Rane for the Lok Sabha.
He is now banking on Rane’s support for the Assembly election as quid pro quo. The clock is ticking to November 20, and the Konkan has never been more rife with intrigue.
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