Former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane to pose against Thackeray

Rajya Sabha MP and former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane was inducted into the Union Cabinet on Wednesday as part of Modi cabinet rehaul. The Maratha leader, a former Shiv Sena member, switched over to the Congress in 2005 after he was expelled from the Shiv Sena alleging anti-party activities. He then left the Congress to form the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha in 2017 and then joined the BJP in October 2019. Though Rane has held several portfolios in the past, this is his first stint in the Union cabinet. The BJP is likely to pose him against CM Uddhav Thackeray.

Rane won his assembly seat six times from 1990. He lost it in the 2014 elections and was again defeated in a by-election in 2015 under the Congress banner. Rane then floated the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha in 2017 together with his two sons Nitesh and Nilesh.

The BJP offered Rane an assembly ticket from the Konkan region in 2019 and then later a Rajya Sabha seat from the BJP quota.

Rane was made CM by Balasaheb Thackeray in 1999 after incumbent Manohar Joshi stepped down. He held the position of the state's revenue minister after joining the Congress in 2005. Rane was later suspended from Congress after he protested the appointment of Ashok Chavan as CM after Vilasrao Deshmukh stepped down as CM to be replaced by Ashok Chavan, in light of the 2008 terror attacks. He claimed that the high command had promised him the post. Though he protested and got suspended, it was later revoked after he apologized to Sonia Gandhi.