Narayan Rane

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Narayan Rane (Marathi: नारायण राणे)(born April 10, 1952) is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra state. He was a member of Shiv Sena until July 2005 when he joined Indian National Congress party.

[edit] Career

Rane was a hardline Shiv Sena man for many years. He was the revenue minister and then Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra under the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government.

On 3rd July, 2005, Rane announced his resignation from the Shiv Sena and subsequently from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly twenty days later. The reason behind this was his apparently being sidelined by the party and party boss, Balasaheb Thackeray and the rise of his son Udhav Thackeray. What followed was intense drama and after much thought, he was admitted to the Indian National Congress and made Revenue Minister of Maharashtra, a powerful ministry. His son Nilesh, became a land developer in the city of Mumbai. Rane sought re-election from his seat, Malvan in the Konkan region on a Congress ticket and won by over 50,000 votes despite a well fought and organised campaign by the Shiv Sena. He even broke the Shiv Sena legislative party, and it was feared that the party would lose the post of the Leader of the Opposition to its junior partner in the state, the BJP. The trend, however, began to reverse when his candidates suffered a series of defeats which can be attributed to door-to-door campaigning by Sena, especially Uddhav Thackeray, who gained people's trust. Rane remains strong in his home region.

In 2007, his candidates lost theby-elections from Mumbai in the Assembly and he was unable to make any impact in the Mumbai Municipal polls, where the Shiv Sena and the BJP won for the third consecutive time.

In December 2007, he went public against the incumbent Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is from his own party, in a bid to secure the office of Chief Minister again. However, he has been fiercely opposed from within the party itself.

Elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

1990-1995
1995-1999
1999-2004
2004-mid2004
2005 by-election

Offices held

1996-1999 Minister of Revenue, Dairy Development, Animal husbandry, Fisheries, Khar lands, Special assistance & rehabilitation.
1999 Chief Minister of Maharashtra State
2005-Minister of Revenue