Narayan Rane’s party fields his son in Sindhudurg

MUMBAI: Rajya Sabha member and ex-CM Narayan Rane on Saturday announced that his son Neelesh will contest as a nominee of his Maharashtra Swabhimani Paksha for the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat.
Neelesh was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 as a Congress nominee after he defeated BJP’s Suresh Prabhu by 46,000 votes; but in 2014, he was defeated by Sena nominee Vinayak Raut by 1.5 lakh votes.Following differences with the Congress leadership, Rane quit the party in 2017 and was expected to join the BJP. However, BJP’s ally Sena objected. Rane was then asked to float a new party and extend support to the Narendra Modi-led NDA.
Accordingly, Rane floated Maharashtra Swabhimani Paksha and quit the legislative council. The BJP then helped Rane get a nomination to the Rajya Sabha, but he was not inducted into the Union or state cabinet. Rane was expecting BJP to terminate its alliance with Sena and then offer Neelesh a Lok Sabha ticket. But as the BJP-Sena renewed its alliance last week, Neelesh will now have to contest as a candidate of Maharahstra Swabhimani Paksha against a Shiv Sena candidate.