New Delhi: Narayan Rane, 69, who got the plum post after a rejig in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet on Wednesday, has been in 3 political parties, including one floated by himself, during the past 15-16 years. He has bagged the MSME portfolio.
He was inducted as a Cabinet Minister today.
Rane began his political metier with the Shiv Sena as a local Shakha Pramukh and rose to the zenith of the Maharashtra politics. He was elected as the Chief Minister of Maharahstra after the incumbent Manohar Joshi stepped down from the coveted post. Mr Rane's remained chief minister for 258 days. It is being said that the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray himself picked Rane for the post of chief minister.
But the tables turned when the Mr Thackeray himself expelled Rane from the party in 2005 accusing him of gangsterism within the party.
Within a month, Rane, chose another track and boared the train of the grand-old party. He joined Indian National Congress and was made the Revenue Minister of Maharashtra. After spending 12 years with the party, Rane voluntarily left Congress in 2017 to float a new political party called the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha.
In 2018, Rane publicly offered to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party and got support for one of three Rajya Sabha seats from the BJP’s quota from Maharashtra.
Since then Rane has been a member of the upper house of the parliament and will now have new set of responsibilities on his shoulders. (UNI)