Narayan Rane has invoked his former party boss, the late Bal Thackeray, while declaring war on the Shiv Sena founder’s son and Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, for the forthcoming Mumbai civic polls. On his arrival in the city on Thursday, after becoming the union minister for micro, small and medium enterprises, Rane paid a visit to the late Thackeray’s Shivaji Park memorial and vowed to defeat the Sena in the civic polls slated for next year.

Rane began his two-day Jan Aashirvad Yatra (public outreach programme) in Mumbai on Thursday from the airport and passed through Sena strongholds. It was evident from Thursday’s narrative that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has empowered Rane to take his rivalry with Uddhav Thackeray to another level. The Congress had tried similar tactics when Rane was part of it, but failed to regain lost ground in the city’s civic elections, which the Sena and BJP fought together till 2012. 
 
The scene changed completely in 2017 when the Sena and BJP separated in the BMC polls. The Sena finished first and the BJP second, with a small margin between them. Devendra Fadnavis, the then CM, had strategised the combat. In this election, the Congress had Rane in its ranks, but recorded its lowest ever count. As a Congressman, Rane bitterly lost two Assembly elections – one in Konkan and the other in the Bandra East by-poll, to Sena candidates. Trupti Sawant, who had beaten him in Bandra East, has now joined the BJP because she was denied a Sena ticket. Sawant welcomed Rane on Thursday. Rane spent a decade in the Congress before forming his own party that later merged with the BJP two years ago.