Pratapsingh Raoji Rane
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| Born | January 28, 1939 Goa |
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| Residence | Sanquelim, Goa | |
| Office | Chief Minister of Goa | |
| Successor | Incumbent | |
| Political party | Indian National Congress | |
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As of June 18, 2006 |
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Pratapsingh Raoji Rane (Marathi : प्रतापसिंह राणे)(also known as Pratapsing Rane or Prataphsinh Rane), (born January 28, 1939) is an Indian politician from the state of Goa. He is the current chief minister of Goa, having taken office on June 7, 2005. He served as the Chief Minister of Goa five times previously - from 1980 to 1985, 1985 to 1989, for three months in 1990, from 1994 to 1999 and from February 3, 2005 to March 4, 2005, when he was dismissed and the state was put under president's rule. The state was under president's rule for three months and then Rane became chief minister again.
Rane has been a member of the Indian National Congress since the mid-seventies, and was earlier a prominent figure in the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. In the MGP, he was minister for law and also held other portfolios, in the term beginning 1972.
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[edit] Early life
Rane has a BBA degree from the United States, and comes from the prominent Maratha family of the Ranes, that dominated politics out of their home in the north eastern pocket of Sattari in Goa. They have had a set of revolts and peace treaties with the Portuguese while the latter were ruling Goa. The family traces their roots to the Rane clan of Marathas.
He dominated politics in Goa for the entire decade of the 1980s, and for part of the 1990s. His achievements include the launching of the Kadamba Transport Corporation government-run bus transport system in a Goa which had a poor transportation system, which could still do with further improvements.
[edit] Political career
In the 1980s, dissidents within the ruling Congress party sought to dislodge Rane from power, by appealing to New Delhi, mostly unsucessfully. Some of his later tenures in power earned criticism allegedly because of growing corruption during his regime. He was leader of the Opposition while the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Goa from the late-1990s till early 2005. His critics, like the then editor of the local Goa newspaper Herald or O Heraldo, Rajan Narayan criticised Rane for not doing enough as the leader of the Opposition.
Ironically, Rane became chief minister after the Congress's first-ever win in Goa in 1980 mainly as a "consensus candidate", after a bitter battle for the top political slot between the then two Congress heavyweights, Dr Wilfred de Souza and Anant Narcinva Naik also known as Babu Naik. Naik was subsequently largely marginalised in state politics, while Souza served under Rane in some of his Cabinets.
[edit] Personal
By profession, Rane is agriculturist. He is married. His favourite pastime and recreation is reading and watching Marathi Drama. His niece Kartika Rane is a popular Marathi actress.
