The Congress on Saturday rehabilitated Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister and senior leader Narayan Rane, by nominating him as its candidate for the June 10 biennial elections to the Maharashtra legislative Council.
The Congress nominated Rane after rejecting ticket claims by a staggering 52 aspirants, including senior functionaries Harshavardan Patil and Muzafar Hussain.
With his nomination and the imminent election to the State Council, 64-year-old Rane can now look forward to regaining his clout in the State Congress set up.
Rane, who had been in the doghouse after his successive electoral defeats, had been lobbying intensely with the Congress high command for the party ticket.
Rane’s desperation to seek the nomination should be seen in the light of the fact that he is looking for political rehabilitation of sorts — especially after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Shiv Sena’s Vaibhav Naik in his home constituency of Kudal in Sindhudurg district in the October 2014 Assembly polls and his subsequent defeat in the Assembly by-polls to Bandra seat in April last year.
An erstwhile Shiv Sena leader, Rane was Maharashtra's chief minister for a brief period during Sena-BJP government that ruled the state in the nineties. He had later served as the leader of Opposition in the State Assembly from 1999-2005.
In the earlier Council polls local self-government constituencies held in December last year, the Congress had denied Rane ticket and nominated senior party functionary Bhai Jagtap in his place.
The State Council biennial elections have been necessitated by the retirement of ten sitting members, including two ruling Shiv Sena ministers Subhash Desai, Diwakar Raote, leader of Opposition in the Upper House Dhananjay Munde and Chairman of legislative Council Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, both from NCP.
Apart from Desai, Raote, Munde and Naik-Nimbalkar, the other outgoing MlCs are: Dipti A. Chavdhari, Saiyad Muzaffar Hussain, Shobha M Fadnavis, Prakash S Binsale, Vinayak T Mete and Vijay K Sawant.
Interestingly enough, the Congress is contesting one seat, leaving two seats to its erstwhile ally NCP. The ruling BJP and Shiv Sena are likely to have seat adjustments for the polls.