Navneet Kaur Rana: From silver screen to Parliament

Former actress scored an upset win over Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul in Amravati

    

After beating veteran Shiv Sena leader and two-time Member of Parliament (MP) Anandrao Adsul in Amravati constituency, Navneet Kaur Rana is set to attain renown as a giant killer.

Rana, a former Telugu actress, is also the only candidate from among the alliance partners of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who managed to emerge victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Adsul was also a three-term MP from Buldhana Lok Sabha constituency.

Rana has joined the list of the film stars who have been elected to Parliament. She contested the election as a Yuva Swabhimani Paksha (YSP) candidate, a political outfit formed by her husband Ravi Rana. Ravi Rana is also an independent MLA from Badnera Assembly seat, which is a part of the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency.

This was the second time Rana ran against Adsul. In 2014, she had fought as an NCP candidate but lost by over 1.37 lakh votes. This time, however, she defeated Adsul by 36,951 votes. This is significant considering that the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) had fielded Gunwant Deopare, who polled more than 65,000 votes.

The poll results indicate that the VBA impacted the prospects of the opposition in at least seven Lok Sabha seats, where the margin by which the Opposition candidates lost was less than the votes polled by the VBA.

“When the entire country was facing a (BJP) tsunami, the people of Amravati chose me over others. There was no strategy at all. Our dedication and hard work reached to the heart of people and they elected me,” Rana said reacting to her victory.

Rana also said she and her husband would remain with the opposition alliance, unlike in 2014.

“We will remain as an alliance partner of the Congress-NCP alliance,” she asserted. After the 2014 state Assembly elections, Ravi Rana, who was elected as an independent candidate, had declared support to the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Despite being the headquarters of western Vidarbha, Amravati is yet to get an airport. The rail connectivity here is also weak if compared to Nagpur. Rana said wanted to work for both.

“I will try to get a full-fledged airport for Amravati. There is no direct train to Delhi. Also, a significant number of youth from Amravati are working or studying in Pune but there is no daily train for them. From now on, all these things will be on my priority list,” she said.