BENGALURU: The next ten years, the period between 1990 and 2000, were the best of my life. Indeed, it was the golden decade. I experienced professional highs that I had never anticipated I would be blessed with, including the ultimate seat of power for a proud, patriotic Maharashtrian – the post of Chief Minister.
After my soaring popularity as the chairman of BEST, my next goal was to be the mayor of Mumbai. My work for BEST had cultivated in me a deep love for the city of Mumbai. I was confident that just like I had nurtured BEST, I would be able to contribute significantly to other aspects of the city as well. I was also sure that Saheb had taken notice of my good work and would certainly not disappoint me in my mayoral bid. But, of course, God had other plans.
Elections for the Vidhan Sabha were scheduled for March 1990. Earlier that year, the Shiv Sena held its first constitutional meeting at the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak in Dadar, where a detailed election strategy was discussed. Saheb held extensive discussions with all the candidates to finalize electoral road maps and plans. He caught hold of me at the session and said, ‘Rane, I am making you the Shiv Sena candidate for the Malvan constituency. Get ready to campaign.’
Malvan was a small hamlet in Kankavli taluka in Sindhudurg district in the Konkan belt. I felt like someone had poured a pot of boiling water over my mayoral aspirations. I immediately folded my hands before him and replied, ‘Saheb, please, I don’t want to contest the Vidhan Sabha elections from the Konkan. I have been living in Mumbai for as long as I can remember and don’t really have any strong footing in that region, except for the fact that it is my place of birth.’
Saheb gave me an I-am-not-willing-to-hear-anything look and said, ‘Rane, nothing doing. You are contesting and that’s it. Matter over.’ But, true to form, I wasn’t willing to give up my dream of becoming mayor. The next day I went to see the then general secretary of the Shiv Sena, Manohar Joshiji, at his residence. His response was: ‘Look, Rane, your nomination has not come from us. Your recommendation has come from the local Sainiks in Sindhudurg. They particularly asked Saheb for your candidature.’I still wasn’t convinced and asked for ten days to ponder over my decision.
A few days after my meeting with Joshiji, I had a job with Saheb. I always used to accompany him on his dauras, his official tours, and this time I was with him on his visit to Marathwada and Vidarbha. I made an effort to stay more alert and keep my ear to the ground. Saheb held various jahir sabhas, public meetings where I saw clear support for Saheb and the Sena among the people of the state. It was the first time I felt the people were truly ready to bring Saheb to power. And it was precisely because of this observation that I decided to sacrifice my mayoral aspirations and made up my mind that if our party came to power, I must be a part of the government. The next day, after returning to Mumbai, I saw Joshiji again and accepted my candidature for Malvan.
As I got into the game, I was given to understand that there were ten other candidates competing for the Sena ticket. I knew from past experience that when I truly decide to do something, I do not let go until I have tasted victory. This self-awareness, compounded with the fact that I had been handpicked for the job by Saheb, led me to warn my competitors, in all modesty, against submitting their nomination forms. Now that I was in the race, there was no chance that anyone other than me would get the ticket, and, in that event, I didn’t want them to lose their deposit of `5,000. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen. And when my name was indeed announced as the official candidate, they had to swallow their pride as well as forgo the deposit.
Then reality hit me. I realized that I had only twenty-eight days to campaign in Malvan. I immediately took along a few friends who would help me and left for Malvan. Malvan was a small hamlet and, in order to stay accessible, we decided to stay at a rest house in Kankavli for the duration of the campaign. When I reached, there were already about forty media persons waiting to speak to me.
They said to me, ‘Raneji, aap toh Mumbai ke rehnevale hain. You have also worked there all your life.
Then how will you fight the election here?’ Fair question, I thought, and replied immediately, ‘See, I have come here to put up a proper fight. Balasaheb Thackeray has sent me here, so I will run a good campaign and contest. How I will do it and how I will win – don’t ask me. But one thing is for sure: when I return to Mumbai, I will return as an MLA.’
It was with this confidence that I took up the challenge of befriending Malvan and its constituents despite being an outsider. I knew I had to endear myself and Saheb to them. It was an uphill task. But I was determined. In twenty-eight days I held 315 sabhas and meetings throughout my constituency, getting to know as many people as I possibly could. When election time came, the people came out in support of me – regardless of gender, caste, creed, religion and status – and chose me with a margin of 7,500 votes. On counting day, not only did I prove myself worthy of Saheb’s confidence, but my result, ‘Malvan se Rane jeete – Rane wins from Malvan’, was the first to be announced.Excerpted from No Holds Barred by Narayan Rane with Priyam Gandhi-Mody, with permission from HaperCollins Publishers India.