By-polls attract attention only when big names are involved. In Maharashtra’s recent political history, the last by-elections people watched with excitement featured Narayan Rane, the Shiv Sainik-turned-Congressman. It was in 2005 that Rane left the Shiv Sena, and then contested a by-poll in Malvan, Konkan, to crush the Sena’s Parshuram Uprakar by 63,000 votes. Yet another by-poll involving Rane, this time in Mumbai’s Bandra (East), will be watched keenly because it is now make-or-break for him. The Congressman has vowed to put his loss in the 2014 Assembly polls in Kudal (also in Konkan) behind and repeat the Malvan feat.

Rane’s aggression is sharper when he engages Uddhav Thackeray. Six months after a sound drubbing at the hands of the Sena, he has taken the fight straight to Uddhav’s doorstep in Kalanagar (Bandra East), where voting will be held on April 11. In a way, Rane has been fighting multiple battles -- one with the Sena and the other within the Congress. Last year was a bad one for the Ranes -- Nilesh, the elder son, lost the Lok Sabha elections to the Modi wave and then the father lost the Assembly seat he chose to contest in Sindhudurg district. The only solace was that younger son Nitesh managed to win the neighbouring Assembly segment the father had been representing till 2014.
In the Mumbai segment being contested now, the Congress had won (then Kherwadi) before delimitation changed its composition in favour of the Sena, which has won Bandra (East) twice recently. The Sena expects a sympathy wave to ensure a big win for deceased MLA Bala Sawant’s widow, Trupti.