Union Minister Narayan Rane of the BJP has nominated for the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency

Union minister Narayan Rane was fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday from the coastal Maharashtra seat of Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg for the Lok Sabha.

Rane is up against Vinayak Raut, a candidate for the Shiv Sena (UBT), who currently represents this seat in the Lok Sabha.

Kiran Samant, the brother of Maharashtra Industries Minister and Shiv Sena politician Uday Samant, was eager to run for this Lok Sabha constituency. But the BJP was able to secure the seat for itself, and Rane was put up.The BJP has never before challenged for this seat.

As part of the ‘Mahayuti’ coalition, the BJP shares power in Maharashtra with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), headed by Ajit Pawar, and the Shiv Sena, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat, including two important coastal districts in Maharashtra, has long been a steadfast supporter of the Shiv Sena in its unbroken form.

Vinayak Raut backed the Uddhav Thackeray-led side during the party’s split in June 2022, and the faction has since renominated him for the seat.

When the Rane family was affiliated with the Congress, their eldest son Nilesh Rane became victorious in the 2009 Lok Sabha election in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat.

Despite being renominated by the Congress, Nilesh was defeated by Vinayak Raut in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

In 2019, Nilesh ran as the candidate of Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, a political organization founded by his father, and Raut won the seat. Later on, the group became a part of the BJP.

In the united Shiv Sena, Narayan Rane began his political career before rising to the position of chief minister in 1999.

But in 2005, the party’s founder, Bal Thackeray, banished him for “anti-party activities.”

In the Sindhudurg district, Nitesh, the younger son of Rane, is the representative for the Kankavli assembly seat.