Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former MP Nilesh Rane, the elder son of Union Minister Narayan Rane on Tuesday announced his withdrawal from active politics.
In a dramatic post on X (formerly Twitter), Nilesh, the ex-MP for the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency in the Konkan, said he was stepping down from politics as his mind was no longer in it.
“I am permanently stepping down from active politics longer as my mind is no longer in it. I have been lucky to have received so much affection in BJP and to have the opportunity to work in such a great organization…I am no longer interested in contesting elections. Critics will criticize but I do not like wasting my time and that of others in a field which does not suit me anymore,” said Mr. Nilesh Rane.
Mr. Nilesh Rane, whose younger brother Nitesh Rane is a legislator from the Kankavli Assemble segment, was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket. That was when Narayan Rane was still with the Congress.
However, soon after his first term, Mr. Nilesh Rane bit the electoral dust in the general elections of 2014, losing to the Shiv Sena’s Vinayak Raut, who is currently with Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT) faction.
In September 2017, his father, Narayan Rane severed his decade plus-long association with the Congress with the expectation that the BJP, which was weak in the Konkan belt, would welcome him with open arms.
The senior Mr. Rane then floated his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, which allied with the BJP. Nilesh Rane again contested the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, only to be beaten for the second time by Mr. Vinayak Raut.
According to sources, the reason for Mr. Nilesh Rane’s sudden announcement could be because the BJP is keen on his father Mr. Narayan Rane, who is presently a Rajya Sabha MP, contesting the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat.
Some analysts feel the reason for Mr. Nilesh Rane stepping down could be that the BJP, which fervently adheres to an anti-dynastic stance, is keen to dispel notions of promoting dynastic politics given that the Rane family already have two elected members – Mr. Narayan Rane, and younger son Mr. Nitesh Rane.
