Narayan Rane is looking forward to achieving his goal of becoming chief minister, from Kudal constituency in Sindhudurg district in the October 13 assembly elections.
Maharashtra industries minister Narayan Rane, who made an unsuccessful bid for the
chief ministerial post last December, is looking forward to achieving his goal from this constituency in Sindhudurg district in the October 13 assembly elections.
Rane, a former chief minister of the state during the sena-BJP rule, represented the Malwan assembly constituency in the Legislative Assembly for four consecutive terms. He joined the Congress in 2005 after being expelled for the Shiv Sena.
In the November 2005 by-elections, soon after he joined the Congress, Rane had trounced Sena candidate Parshuram Uparkar where the latter had lost his deposit.
Rane says he would repeat the feat again.
With Mumbai (36), Thane(24) and Konkan (12) accounting for 72 assembly constituencies out of the total 288, the coastal belt will play a decisive role in formation of the next government as well as the new chief minister.
Kudal taluka, which was earlier in the Vengurla assembly constituency, has been attached with Malwan taluka from the previous Malwan-Kankavali constituency to create a
new Kudal assembly segment.
While the recarved Sawantwadi assembly comprises talukas of Vengurla, Sawantwadi and Dodamarg, the new Kankavli constituency has been created out of Kankavli, Devgad and Vaibhavwadi, which was earlier part of the Panhala assembly in neighbouring Kolhapur district. The sprawling rural constituency has a voter population of about 2.18 lakh with horticulture, fishing and farming being the main occupation.
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Congress candidate Nilesh Rane polled 53,034 votes as against 42,605 by Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu.
Even though Narayan Rane had declared that he would give a lead of over two lakh votes to his son in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Parliamentary seat, Nilesh could win by only over 30,000 votes.
Rane had even spoken of an internal sabotage and asked the chief minister Ashok Chavan to take action for anti-party activities.
However, Congress sources said that his supporters who are ruling the Zilla Parishads and Panchayat samitis are responsible for preventing Nilesh from getting a cakewalk in
the Lok Sabha elections.
"Voters expressed their anger at the high handedness of Rane's followers, through the ballot box. Rane will have to work hard in Kudal this time. There could be a problem he
neglects certain grey areas," a senior Congressman from Sindhudurg district told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
Rane is pitted against Vaibhav Naik, nephew of slain Congress leader Sridhar Naik in a straight fight.
Rane was one of the accused in the murder case, but was accquited by the Sessions court. Rane has been camping in the constituency for the last few days and has now shifted his focus to campaigning in other parts of the state.
Before the election code of conduct came into force, he has already performed 'bhoomi pujan' of various works sanctioned under the Konkan package worth over Rs 5000 crore. Kudal constituency's share is Rs1800crore.
Vaibhav Naik, the Sena candidate said that the fight in Kudal is not between two political parties but between "Rane supporters and opponents".
Vaibhav left the Congress two years ago on grounds that he will not accept the leadership of Rane.
"Rane's son Nilesh got a lead of 10,000 votes in the Lok Sabha polls from the Kudal assembly segment. We are confident that we will cover up the lead and emerge victorious
this time. Issues of Lok Sabha differ from Assembly," he said.
Vaibhav said Rane has done nothing for the constituency except false assurances of eradicating unemployment.
"He has been the industries minister, but there is no new industry in the constituency. He has demolished idle MIDC units and constructed his own properties," Vaibhav alleged.
Rane said that the issue of chief ministership is not on his mind. "My endeavour is to get maximum candidates of Congress and NCP elected and am campaigning hard," he said
adding that the chief ministership will be decided in Delhi.
However, his supporters in Kudal are already terming him as the "future chief minister".
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