Amravati nominee Navneet Rana emerges as strong Hindutva advocate in Maharashtra

Mumbai, March 27: Despite strong reservations of the Shiv Sena, the BJP has fielded actor-turned-politician Navneet Rana from the Amravati (SC) seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Rana had won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Amravati as an Independent candidate supported by the NCP. However, after her victory, she aligned with the BJP. In 2014, she had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from the same seat on an NCP ticket.

With the BJP now announcing her as the party nominee from Amravati, Rana has outpaced Shiv Sena leader and former Union Minister Anandrao Adsul, who had expressed his desire to contest the seat while opposing Rana’s nomination.

Rana had appeared confident of getting a BJP ticket as she countered her critics by saying that the lotus is always in Goddess Laxmi’s hand, which is being construed to mean that she would get the party ticket.

She shares a good rapport with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and also with the party's Central leadership, including Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Rana, who is currently engaged in a legal battle over the cancellation of her caste certificate, has emerged as a strong advocate of Hindutva in the state, targeting the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for losing its claim of being the ardent advocate of Hindutva after aligning with the Congress and the NCP.

She was caught in a huge controversy for chanting Hanuman Chalisa in front of Uddhav Thackeray’s residence Matoshree, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power in April 2022. After a high-voltage face-off with the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for her act, she and her husband Ravi Rana, who is an Independent MLA, were arrested by the Mumbai police on the charge of sedition.

The BJP had targeted Thackeray and the MVA government over the arrests, as it called the Shiv Sena anti Hindutva.

Rana also hogged the headlines after she blamed the MVA government for the Udaipur-like killing in Amravati as she criticised the former Amravati police commissioner for communal riots and killings.

The trigger was the killing of a tailor named Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and the subsequent murder of a veterinary pharmacist in Amravati for sharing posts in support of suspended BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma.

She had accused the Amravati police chief of projecting the murder of the pharmacist as part of a robbery bid.

On March 6 this year, Rana received a death threat through an audio message on WhatsApp.