Maharashtra Assembly Elections: Nilesh Rane, son of BJP MP and former Union Minister Narayan Rane, will join the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena on October 23. With this development, Rane will now be contesting from the Kudal Assembly seat on a Shinde Sena ticket.


As per the ruling Mahayuti alliance's seat-sharing formula, the Kudal constituency is with the Shiv Sena, which is said to be the reason behind Nilesh's switch from the Bharatiya Janata Party to Shiv Sena, news agency PTI reported citing party sources.


Nilesh Rane, a former MP from Ratnagiri Sindhudurg, said on Tuesday, "I will be joining the Shiv Sena in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday at 4pm." He also expressed happiness about receiving the opportunity to contest Maharashtra polls on Shinde Sena ticket, the party from where his father kickstarted his political career.


He stated that the Kudal seat has gone to Shiv Sena as per the seat sharing agreement, and since he had been working in the constituency for the past few years, he received support from the BJP, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, and Guardian Minister Ravindra Chavan, Indian Express reported.


Nilesh Rane has been pitted against Vaibhav Naik of Shiv Sena (UBT), who is an old rival of the Ranes. Naik is a sitting MLA from Kudal, which is part of Narayan Rane’s Lok Sabha constituency, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. In 2014, Naik had defeated Narayan Rane from the Kudal-Malvan constituency.


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Nilesh’s younger brother Nitesh, who is with the BJP, will be representing the adjoining Kankavali assembly constituency. He is the sitting MLA from Kankavali and will be contesting again to retain the seat. 


Before joining the BJP in 2014, Nilesh Rane, was earlier with the Congress. He was the MP from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency from 2009 to 2014. He contested the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket but not secure a victory. 


The Mahayuti alliance has announced its candidates list for 99 seats, out of which the BJP has retained 77 seats. The first list features prominent faces including Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, State BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar, Minister Girish Mahajan, Sudhir Mungantiwar, and Chandrakant Patil. 


Voting for all 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20. The results will be declared on November 23.