The Bandra East Assembly by-poll&nbsp;is likely to be a make-or-break election for senior Congress&nbsp;leader Narayan Rane, according to political observers.&nbsp;
Rane, who suffered a shock defeat at his home town&nbsp;Kudal in Sindhudurg district during Maharashtra Assembly polls&nbsp;last year, losing to his bete noire Vaibhav Naik of Shiv Sena&nbsp;by nearly 10,000 votes, is hoping to revive his decimated&nbsp;political career through the Bandra East Assembly bypoll.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2015/apr/narayan-rane-priya-dutt.jpg" alt="Narayan Rane and Priya Dutt" />
Congress-NCP candidate Narayan Rane with Congress leader Priya Dutt campaign for the Assembly bypoll at Bharat Nagar at Bandra in Mumbai on Tuesday. Pic/PTI&nbsp;
Political observers are keeping a keen watch on&nbsp;whether the 62-year-old leader, who was contemplating quitting&nbsp;the Congress after the Lok Sabha elections last year, can come&nbsp;out of his "political hibernation".
Rane is pitted against Trupti Sawant, widow of sitting&nbsp;Shiv Sena MLA Bala Sawant, whose death necessitated the bypoll&nbsp;scheduled to be held on April 11.
The contest has attained a high profile tone as the&nbsp;constituency houses the residence of Shiv Sena president&nbsp;Uddhav Thackeray, against whom Rane had launched a tirade&nbsp;before being forced to quit the party (Sena).
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)&nbsp;legislator from Byculla, Waris Pathan told PTI that his party&nbsp;candidate Rehbar Khan, who polled about 24,000 votes in the&nbsp;Assembly poll last year, would better his vote share in the&nbsp;upcoming by-election.
"Our fight is against the Sena and not Congress. We&nbsp;will get support from non-Muslim voters as well. After seeing&nbsp;our performance in the Legislative Assembly in the last five&nbsp;months, people are confident that we are their voice in the&nbsp;Legislature," he said.
Pathan said the Bill banning cow slaughter was passed&nbsp;by the Sena-BJP government when Narayan Rane was the chief&nbsp;minister. Similarly, he opposed implementation of the&nbsp;Srikrishna Commission report which probed the 1992-93 riots.&nbsp;
"Muslims will never support him," he said.&nbsp;
Experts say that MIM may emerge as a deciding factor&nbsp;in the election.
Sena MLC Anil Parab said his party cadre is putting in&nbsp;all efforts to defeat Rane.
"All of us want Rane's political career to end in this&nbsp;bypoll, as the constituency is home of late Balasaheb&nbsp;Thackeray. BJP and RPI are supporting our candidate. Bala&nbsp;Sawant was a two-time MLA and thrice corporator from the area.&nbsp;The common man could identify with him," he said.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, Rane said MIM cannot claim to espouse the&nbsp;Muslim cause. "What did it do when the Muslim reservation was&nbsp;scrapped by the BJP government?" he asked.
Rane also targeted Sena for contesting the election on&nbsp;emotional appeal.
"Such emotional appeals and sympathy do not solve&nbsp;people's issues," he said referring to Bala Sawant's widow&nbsp;Trupti, who is the candidate in fray.&nbsp;
Rane also said his focus has always been development&nbsp;and he would stick to it.
In October 2014, Sena's Bala Sawant had got 41,388&nbsp;votes and defeated BJP's Mahesh Parkar by 15,000 votes.
Rehbar&nbsp;Khan of MIM received 23,976 votes and was placed third, while&nbsp;the BJP and Congress got 25,791 and 12,229 votes respectively.&nbsp;
For the by-poll, the BJP has said it is supporting the&nbsp;Sena candidate, while NCP has extended its support to Rane.
The constituency, mainly dominated by Maharashtrians&nbsp;from Konkan region, has around 80,000 Muslim and around 50,000&nbsp;Dalit voters.
The entire Mumbai Congress unit has come together to&nbsp;support Rane, former Congress MLA Krishna Hegde said.
"Bandra East has been a Congress stronghold. Sunil&nbsp;Dutt's vote margin had always been high in the Bandra East&nbsp;area for Lok Sabha election. Priya Dutt got good support from&nbsp;here while Janardhan Chandurkar won this Assembly segment&nbsp;thrice. Congress candidates won this seat even before&nbsp;Chandurkar," he said.
The MIM public meetings have been a flop with poor&nbsp;turnout, he claimed.
"Rane has risen from the ranks of a corporator to&nbsp;Chief Minister and people feel he is a go getter. Their issues&nbsp;are about basic amenities which the Sena-BJP ruled municipal&nbsp;corporation did not provide," Hegde said.
The constituency with huge slum pockets dominated by&nbsp;Muslims and North Indians, localities of Kalanagar (residence&nbsp;of Uddhav Thackeray), Sahitya Sahawas (Sachin Tendulkar's&nbsp;childhood home), MIG, teachers' colony, government colony with&nbsp;Maharashtrian population have a voter population of about&nbsp;three lakh.
If Sena retains the seat, it will also have an edge in&nbsp;the state government and in the upcoming Mumbai Municipal&nbsp;Corporation's election.&nbsp;
If Rane wins, then he will pose a big challenge to the&nbsp;state government as an opposition, observers said.

The Bandra East Assembly by-poll&nbsp;is likely to be a make-or-break election for senior Congress&nbsp;leader Narayan Rane, according to political observers

Bandra East by-poll to be make-or-break situation for Narayan Rane

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Bandra East by-poll to be make-or-break situation for Narayan Rane

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