Nilesh Rane withdraws decision to quit active politics

Union minister Narayan Rane’s elder son and former MP Nilesh Rane on Wednesday withdrew his decision to quit active politics, a day after he announced it, after intervention from the party leadership.Nilesh was angry following his differences with guardian minister Ravindra Chavan over a power tussle in the Sindhudurg district, said a BJP leader from Sindhudurg.

The decision had been taken out of his dismay over Rane and his supporters being neglected by the party leadership while making appointments and announcing candidature in gram panchayat elections, according to the party insiders.The supporters of Nilesh Rane were not given a place in state and district executive bodies, announced by the party recently. Moreover, the contract for the development works in the districts were not given to the contractors that are close to Ranes. Nilesh has differences with public works department minister Ravindra Chavan, who is also the guardian minister of Sindhudurg as the former feel that the minister was favouring his political opponents such as Vaibhav Naik and Sandesh Parkar in the district,” said a BJP leader from Sindhudurg. “Apart from that, Rane was upset after the public works department under Chavan did not carry his father Narayan Rane’s picture in an advertisement given during chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ tour in August. All this led to the tussle between Rane and Chavan,” said a BJP leader from Sindhudurg.

The Rane family hails from the coastal Sindhudurg district. Narayan Rane was a chief minister of Maharashtra in 1999 as a member of the Shiv Sena during the Sena-BJP coalition government. He later joined the Congress in 2005 and the BJP in 2019.Nilesh Rane was a Lok Sabha member from the Congress representing the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency in Maharashtra between 2009 and 2014.