Is Narayan Rane planning a return to Shiv Sena?

Congress leader Narayan Rane’s speech in praise of Shiv Sena founder, the late Bal Thackeray, at a function on Sunday has led to speculation that the leader wants to return to the Shiv Sena and is sending out feelers to the party’s leaders.

Speaking at his 65th birthday celebration, Rane said he owes his political achievements to Thackeray.

“No one displayed the trust in me that Balsaheb did. No matter which party I work for, I will always hold him in high regard,” said the senior Congress leader. “Balsaheb has made me the person I am today,” he added.

Rane said Thackeray prompted him to contest the assembly polls when he was thinking of running for the post of Mumbai mayor. He added that this incident changed his life.

His statement is being seen as an indicator that he wants to rejoin the Shiv Sena.

For the past few weeks, there have been speculations that Rane has reached out to leaders of both ruling parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena.

While the BJP has shown a willingness to take him on-board, it is the Sena which has not responded positively. Sources said Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who Rane had targeted when he quit the party in 2005, is not keen to take him back.

Rane’s area of influence is the Konkan , where he faces threats from the Shiv Sena, which has become aggressive in the state’s coastal region. Rane lost the 2014 assembly polls, while his elder son Nilesh lost the lok sabha son is a sitting MLA from the region.

Rane, once an ordinary party worker, rose through the ranks and was made chief minister of the SENA-BJP government in 1999 by Bal Thackeray. He became the Opposition leader after the saffron allies lost power in the same year. Rane later quit the Shiv Sena to join the Congress, taking a chunk of the party’s MLAS with him. He later launched a vicious campaign