Maharashtra assembly elections: Narayan Rane ensures BJP gains toehold in coastal bastion of ally Shiv Sena

MUMBAI: Narayan Rane oversaw the victory of his son Nitesh as he helped the BJP make inroads into the Shiv Sena bastion of Konkan.


There are eight assembly constituencies in Sindhdurg and Ratnagiri districts. Of the five seats in Ratnagiri, the Shiv Sena won four and the NCP only one, Chiplun. In Sindhdurg, of the three seats, the Shiv Sena won two and the BJP won one.

The Congress was wiped out from this part of the Konkan.

"In Sawantwadi and Kudal assembly constituencies our candidates secured over 50,000 votes. This would not have been possible without Rane," Pramod Jathar, BJP district president, Sindhdurg, said.

Sindhudurg was the only district where alliance partners BJP and Shiv Sena pitted their candidates against each other in what was described by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as a "friendly fight". It was anything but friendly as the BJP used Rane to gain a foothold in the Shiv Sena stronghold.

The NCP had lost the Chiplun seat in the 2014 assembly election. The party lost the Dapoli and Guhagar seats, which it had won the last time. Guhagar MLA Bhaskar Jadhav contested on a Shiv Sena ticket this time and won.

Jathar was categorical that the BJP and Sena should have formed an alliance only after the assembly election. "It sent a confusing message to the people. In Sindhudurg the BJP could have won all the three seats had there been no alliance to start with. The Kankavli seat was won by the BJP by a margin of 30,000 seats, while the Sena won the Sawantwadi and Kudal seats by a margin of hardly 13,000 and 15,000 votes," he said.

Shiv Sena politician Subhash Desai said the party wanted to defeat Rane. "The grassroot Sena worker is not willing to forget or forgive the senior Rane's utterances against Balasaheb Thackeray. We do not want such tendencies in Maharashtra politics," he said.

On the Sena victories, he said the tally could have been better. "Our alliance is victorious. We will introspect and examine what went wrong. We'll now concentrate on implementing our manifesto," he said.

Narayan Rane, who was a mellowed version of his usual self during the campaign, said his son's victory was a fitting reply from the people to those who betrayed him.

Local journalist Rajan Chavan said the election results were an indication of the beginning of the fight between the Sena and Rane, and in turn the BJP, for control of the two districts.