When the curtains came down on Manohar Joshi's stint as Chief Minister last week, one man was waiting in the wings, prepared and ready to step on to the stage. In fact, so prepared was he that nearly 36 hours before Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's terse step-down letter reached an unsuspecting Manohar Joshi, Narayan Rane had seen the letter and understood the script. He knew exactly that the next act was his.This is typical Raneon the ball, generally in the know, quick with his assessments, ever ready to step on to the stage. He seeks and gathers information, particularly on rivals like Joshi, with a guile that many in his party both dread and admire. He uses the information selectively to strike from within and gain an advantage. Classic guerrilla warfare that works in the Shiv Sena and helped him worm his way into Thackeray's good books.Cleverly, during the last 18 months or so, Rane traded nuggets of information for a high price: Thackeray's confidence. As Revenue Minister in Joshi's Cabinet, Ranewas privy not only to decisions but also to the way they were made and the manner in which Joshi slowly but surely sidelined Thackeray from government affairs. Rane smelt the ideal opportunity that a guerrilla tactician waits for. Within months, an upneta (deputy leader) of the party enjoyed the closeness and confidence that Thackeray reserved for the top echelons.Once in the charmed circle, the rest was strategy - and some luck. Rane's camaraderie with Gopinath Munde, Deputy Chief Minister and once Joshi's political companion, is just as recent as Munde's criticism of Joshi's style of functioning. This could be mere coincidence - or coincidence cleverly engineered. Munde's problems with Joshi meant that his party, the BJP, too would not be soft on Joshi. A difficult Chief Minister would have to go for the sake of coalition goodwill. It's all part of a jigsaw that's only now falling into place but perhaps Rane saw the full picture months ago.But to be fair to Rane, Machiavelli is only one role he plays.Key state government bureaucrats and officers respect him for his efficiency, alertness, determination and ``grasping power.'' Files rarely gather dust on his table, he has little patience for excuses and when a decision is put on hold, he asks officers to suggest a way out.In fact, at his very first Cabinet meeting, two days after he took over as Chief Minister, Rane dealt with all 17 items on the agenda. In Joshi's tenure, the score was usually: less than five out of 20. Rane is known to notice even the brief district despatches in newspapers and get officers to act. ``The impression created is that he can get the administration working. It's important now, with Assembly elections less than a year away, that the Sena programmes are carried out,'' says a senior party leader.That's his USP. For, Thackeray believed that Joshi was not pushing the party's agenda at all in the government. Rane's brief is to change that. But it's not only the government or the party's image that bothers several seniorSena leaders who have kept their distance from the new Chief Minister. His image is also a cause for concern.Tried for the murder of Sridhar Naik, Congress worker, in Sindhudurg district where Rane hails from, he was acquitted in 1997. An appeal against that decision is pending in the Mumbai High Court and the Opposition Congress can be expected to exploit it to embarrass the government and target the Sena's credibility during the election campaign. Chhagan Bhujbal, Congress leader, has already begun: ``They targeted us for criminalisation of politics.what is this if not blatant criminalisation?''Rane's reputation doesn't find easy acceptance with many party leaders. Having risen from the ranks of humble Shiv Sainiks in suburban Chembur where he later became the shakha pramukh (unit chief), Rane still carries that brand of street-level toughness. He was never part of the Sena's think-tank that included Joshi, Pramod Navalkar, Subhash Desai among others. Rane did not break ``pav'' with them. Hisstanding in the party comes from his ability to command and use sheer muscle-power. A mere word from the shakha pramukh and shops in Chembur would down their shutters.In the last few years, his stints as chairperson of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's BEST bus service and dairy development minister has taken some of the rough edges off the man. As Gajanan Kirtikar, reprimanded by the Justice Srikrishna Commission for his role in the Mumbai riots and now a Cabinet Minister, says: ``For many of us who have come from the ranks, Rane's rise is a reminder that the party values us.'' Yet, his difficulty with the English language and his discomfort with men and women of letters gives him a complex something he will have to deal with as Chief Minister.Rane is counting on his no-nonsense approach, intimate knowledge of the party cadre and the common Sainik's aspirations, and felicity with administrative procedures to ride him through a tumultuous year. Taking charge of a lackadaisical government andmanaging a difficult state is only a part of his new brief; getting the Sena, or the Sena-BJP coalition, a majority in the Assembly election is what he has been brought in for.He began by getting 26 of the 44 Independents who support his government to decLare in writing to the Governor their affiliation. No uncertainties of the kind that plagued Joshi. ``My aim is to run a people-oriented speedy government,'' is all he will say for now. What he probably means is: I've only begun, now wait and watch.
