Mumbai: Former MP Nilesh Rane announces permanent retirement as politician

Nilesh Rane at Vidhan Bhavan on July 25. Pic/Atul Kamble

In a sudden announcement, Nilesh Rane, the elder ex-MP son of senior Union minister Narayan Rane, said on Tuesday that he had quit active politics. The former Lok Sabha MP added that he was not interested in contesting elections. Nilesh represented the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency in 2009 as the Congress nominee. He lost two elections successively from there even while his father founded an independent party and later merged it with the BJP. His younger brother Nitesh is a BJP legislator from Kankavli in Sindhudurg. His father lost two assembly elections while running on a Congress ticket before being drafted in the Rajya Sabha by the BJP. Nilesh, 43, declared his intentions on social media.

"I'm stepping away permanently from active politics because I no longer find it interesting. There is no other reason. I am thankful to those who were with me when there was no reason to do so for the past 20 years. I consider myself fortunate to have worked in an organisation like BJP which has given me extensive love," he said. He added that he was a ‘small man' who got to learn a lot from politics. "I don't want to contest polls. Critics may criticise me. But I don't like wasting my time and other's time on things that I don't like. I apologise to those who I might have hurt inadvertently," he wrote.

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The announcement led to speculation that Nilesh and his family were upset because of the increasing interference of a senior BJP leader in their area of political interests and that the party was likely to convince the ex-MP to withdraw his retirement. It was also said that the Shinde Sena's aggressive demand for sharing the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha has also created local imbalance. As of Tuesday evening, Narayan and Nitesh Rane didn't react to the statement.