Maharashtra polls: Kingmaker Kiran Samant wants to be king in Ratnagiri
Samant claims to have shaped the career of his younger brother Uday Samant, a three-term MLA from Ratnagiri and Maharashtra’s industries minister
Ratnagiri: The land famous for Alphonso mangoes is witnessing a fight in which a kingmaker wants to be king now. Shiv Sena leader Kiran Samant, who claims to have shaped the career of his younger brother Uday Samant, a three-term MLA from Ratnagiri and Maharashtra’s industries minister, is now contesting from the Rajapur constituency.
Born and raised in Ratnagiri, Kiran is a builder by profession who stays at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. After helping his brother win three consecutive terms by organising the ground-level nitty-gritties for him,
Kiran has been looking to enter electoral politics for a while now. He was keen on contesting the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg parliamentary constituency, but had to stand down when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded former chief minister Narayan Rane.
Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, Kiran forced the Shiv Sena to field him from Rajapur after making it a prestige issue, according to a top Shiv Sena leader. “At one point, he had also indicated that he would cross over to Shiv Sena (UBT) if he was not given a ticket. Finally, we had to give him an assembly ticket.”
On his part, Kiran said this was the first and last time he would be contesting elections and vowed to completely change the face of the Rajapur-Lanja area, which he said was one of the most backward areas of Ratnagiri in terms of infrastructure, roads, bridges, education, health employment, women empowerment and erratic power supply. “I have taken this as a challenge and asked for this seat,” he said. “I wanted to join politics only post-retirement. But when the Shiv Sena split [in 2022], I wanted to contest the polls.”
Up against Kiran Samant in Rajapur will be three-term MLA Rajan Salvi of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Avinash Lad, a Congress rebel, whose entry has made it a triangular fight. According to local residents, Lad’s presence has improved Kiran’s chances of winning the seat due to the division of anti-Mahayuti alliance votes. Kiran was confident of winning, saying Salvi had played on people’s emotions to win the last three terms.
Hitting back, Salvi labelled Kirana a traitor for siding with Eknath Shinde when the Shiv Sena split. “Kiran Samant may be a very rich person, but the people are with me. I have been loyal to the Thackeray family and was not a traitor. That’s the reason I faced cases [from the state anti-corruption bureau]. A lot of pressure was put on me to join the Shinde faction. I barely had money for my son’s marriage and had to organise it in a small hotel in Thane. Soon, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will form a government and I will be made a minister. I want to develop the rural areas.”
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Mahayuti candidate, Narayan Rane, was trailing in the Rajapur and Ratnagiri assembly constituency segments, but won the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat because he fared better in Sindhudurg. Salvi is confident of winning the assembly polls, saying Ratnagiri is still a Shiv Sena (UBT) fort.
When the Shiv Sena was formed in 1966, most of its followers came from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri. Shiv Sena’s Anant Geete was elected six times to the Lok Sabha from Ratnagiri (1996-2009) and then Raigad (2009-2019). The party has also supported local agitations against projects such as the Jaitapur nuclear power plant and the Barsu refinery. In 2021, one person was killed in police firing after an initially peaceful agitation against the nuclear plant turned violent. Salvi was among the arrested people.
Over the last few years, the Samant brothers have been quite powerful in the region, which is evident in the fact that Uday Samant is seeking re-election for the fourth time. That said, Uday, who started his career in student politics, was earlier with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
After two terms as an NCP MLA from 2004 to 2014, he joined the Shiv Sena during the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance wave. He retained his seat in the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections as a Shiv Sena candidate.
When the then Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray decided to end his party’s alliance with the BJP after the 2019 assembly elections and join hands with the Congress and NCP, Uday was made a cabinet minister in the MVA government. However, the Samant brothers chose to join the Eknath Shinde camp when the latter split the party in 2022.
Up against Uday Samant is former BJP MLA from Ratnagiri, Bal Mane, who joined the Shiv Sena (UBT) after being refused a Mahayuti ticket. Mane said his views align with the Rashtriya Swayamsevam Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, but believes the people of Ratnagiri want change.
“There is a lot of anti-incumbency; there is misuse of government machinery. I belonged to the RSS, and there are two lakh Sangh votes in Ratnagiri. The BJP did not get the seat [in the Mahayuti alliance’s seat-sharing pact], so I shifted to Shiv Sena (UBT). My views align with the RSS, and I can’t change them overnight. Uddhavji knows this,” he said.
Among the major issues that candidates from the region are bringing up is the incomplete Mumbai-Goa highway. Kiran Samant said the delay was caused by the shortage of raw materials due to eco-sensitive zones and incompetent contractors. Uday Samant claimed the work would be completed by December. “I have given a lot of importance to tourism and infrastructure,” he said. “I have got two major industries, semi-conductors and defence production, which will give employment to nearly 35,000 persons.”