BJP leader Narayan Rane hints at hanging up his boots

Mumbai: One of the rare politicians to have been a member of all four law-making bodies, Narayan Rane now has hinted at hanging up his boots.

Rane has been a member of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in Maharashtra and the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. He has served as a minister both in the State and at the Centre, besides holding the post of Chief Minister.

The 73-year-old leader, who hails from Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra’s coastal Konkan belt, began his political career under the leadership of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray. Currently, Rane is the BJP MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.

Lovingly addressed as Dada, Rane and his family are synonymous with South Konkan politics.

Both his sons are now MLAs. A former Congress MP, Dr Nilesh Rane is a first-time MLA of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena from Kudal, while Nitesh Rane is a three-time MLA from Kankavli—once with the Congress and twice with the BJP—and currently serves as Minister for Ports and Fisheries in the Devendra Fadnavis-headed MahaYuti-NDA government.

“Sometimes one should take a break. It’s not that you keep working all the time; after all, it’s your own body. One feels there should be a pause at times. Now that both sons are settled in politics, someone should also look after the business,” the senior Rane said on Sunday, dropping clear hints of retirement.

Under Balasaheb Thackeray, Rane began his political journey as a corporator of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and later became Chairman of the BrihanMumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST).

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

He later became Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly from 1999 to 2005 but was expelled from the Shiv Sena for rebelling against Uddhav Thackeray.

Rane subsequently joined the Congress and held key portfolios such as Revenue, Industry, Ports and Employment under Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan. His principal grievance with the party was that, despite assurances, he was neither made Chief Minister nor appointed State Congress president.

He lost the 2014 Assembly election from Kudal and later a bye-election from Vandre East (Bandra East) in Mumbai. Rane served as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from 2016 to 2017 before resigning from the Congress.

He then formed the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP) and was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP nomination in 2018. The MSP was later merged with the BJP. Rane went on to become Union Minister for MSMEs in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government and won the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat in 2024.