Narayan Rane meets Sharad Pawar, seeks NCP's help in Bandra East bypoll

Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, who is likely to contest the April 11 Assembly by-election from Bandra East constituency in Mumbai, called on NCP president Sharad Pawar here this morning.

Rane's presence is expected to make it a high-profile contest, with the former Chief Minister trying to challenge his erstwhile party Shiv Sena in its own backyard as the constituency houses the residence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Rane told PTI that he met Pawar at his residence here and sought NCP's co-operation in the by-election.

To a question on when he would file his nomination, he said, "The question arises only after my name is declared by the party." The 62-year-old leader Congress leader has made it clear that he is ready to contest the bypoll, if the party fields him.

Recently he had said that the party requested him to contest the by-election and he conveyed that he would give a thought to the proposal. Political observers say that Rane, who suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of the Sena in Sindhudurg's Kudal Assembly seat last year, agreed to take the plunge only after assessing the ground situation in Bandra East.

"Parties like MIM, MNS and NCP are unlikely to cause trouble to Rane, while a section of BJP is of the view that the defeat of Shiv Sena in the by-election will help reduce its pressure on the state government," an observer said.
Rane is likely to have an advantage in the contest despite Shiv Sena fielding Trupti Sawant, the wife of late Bala Sawant whose death necessitated the by-election, he said. Even though Rane has many times been critical of his party's functioning and openly rebelled against it, the Congress has opted for Rane's aggressive leadership.

"If he wins, Rane will not be an ordinary MLA and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's occupancy of the Leader of Opposition post in the Assembly would come under threat. Similarly, Rane may also try to undermine the authority of the new state Congress unit chief Ashok Chavan," a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

The Congress leadership seems to have given Rane another chance as he has the potential to take on the BJP-Sena aggressively in the Legislature, he said. In October last year, Bala Sawant of Shiv Sena had defeated BJP's Mahesh Parkar by 15,000 votes in the seat.

"The MIM had then bagged about 24,000 votes. With Rane (now likely to be) in fray, it remains to be seen whether MIM can retain its votes and if BJP's votes would be transferred to the Shiv Sena," a local BJP leader said, "Despite the Sena being in government with the BJP, there is lot of bad blood between the grassroots cadres of both the parties. One doubts whether BJP cadre would campaign for the Sena candidate," he said.