Ravi Rana is an Indian independent politician, social worker, and founder of the Yuva Swabhiman Party (YSP). As an independent candidate, Rana was elected as an MLA for the third time in a row from the Badnera Assembly Constituency in the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections.
Wiki/Biography
Ravi Gangadhar Rana was born in 1979 (age 43 years; as of 2022), and he hails from Shankarnagar, Amravati, Maharashtra. After obtaining his matriculation in 1996, he completed his twelfth in 1998. Thereafter, he pursued a Bachelor of Commerce from Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati, but he dropped out in his second year.
Family
Parents & Siblings
Ravi Rana father’s name is Gangadhar Narayan Rana. Not much is much about his mother and siblings.
Wife & Children
On 2 February 2011, Ravi Rana got married to the actress-turned-politician Navneet Kaur Rana, who has mainly worked in the Telugu entertainment industry.
Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana
Navneet and Ravi were one of 3613 couples who tied the knot in a mass marriage ceremony held in Science Core Ground, Amravati, where various popular Indian personalities like Baba Ramdev, Maulana Mahmood Madani, Vivek Oberoi, and Prithviraj Chavan were present.
A picture of Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana on their wedding day, along with Baba Ramdev and Vivek Oberoi
Navneet was born in a Punjabi family and raised in Mumbai. Navneet Rana is an independent candidate, a Member of Parliament from the Amravati constituency. The couple made acquaintance at an ashram of Baba Ramdev. Back then, Ravi Rana was organising one of Baba Ramdev’s Yog Shivirs. Together, Navneet and Ravi have a son, Ranveer, and a daughter, Aarohi.
Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana with their son, Ranveer
Navneet Kaur Rana with her daughter
Religion/Religious Views
Ravi Rana follows Hinduism. In April 2022, Ravi Rana, along with his wife, Navneet Kaur Rana, was arrested for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, a Hindu devotional hymn, outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s bungalow, Matoshree. They were booked for promoting enmity between different religious groups.
Career
Apart from being a politician, Rana is a social worker and farmer.
Politics
2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections
Ravi Rana contested the 2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections as an independent candidate from the Badnera Assembly Constituency in the Amravati District of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. He won the elections defeating the NCP candidate Sulbha Khodke by 18771 votes. In the elections, a coalition government of Congress and NCP was formed with Ashok Chavan (of Congress) as the chief minister.
2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections
Ravi Rana contested the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections as an independent candidate from the Badnera Assembly Constituency. He won the elections defeating the Shiv Sena candidate Band Sanjay by 7419 votes.
2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections
Ravi Rana contested the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections as an independent candidate from the Badnera Assembly Constituency. He won the elections defeating the Shiv Sena candidate Priti Band with a margin of 15541 votes. Later, he offered his unconditional support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in the state after the elections. However, when the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of the BJP and SHS failed to form a government, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress formed the Maharashtra government under a new alliance called Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister.
Controversies
Arrested During a Farmers’ Agitation (2011)
In 2011, Rana was arrested and jailed in the Central Jail Amravati for participating in farmers’ agitation demanding a better remunerative price for raw cotton. Rana, along with his wife and Yuva Swabhimani Sanghatana, had launched a protest in support of hiking the minimum guarantee price of raw cotton from Rs 3,300 to Rs 6,000 per quintal. In the jail, he sat on an indefinite hunger strike for the cause due to which his health deteriorated. The chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s emissary and the Maharashtra minister for Industries, Narayan Rane talked with Rana over the telephone to convince him to end his fast, but Rana refused to relent.
Booked for violating lockdown norms (2020)
In 2020, Ravi Rana was booked by the police for violating the lockdown norms to pay tribute to BR Ambedkar on the occasion of his birth anniversary in Maharashtra. Rana and five others removed barricades to reach Irwin Square, Amravati, Maharashtra, for paying tributes to B R Ambedkar amid the COVID-19 lockdown. The police have invoked section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code against Rana.
Put in House Arrest under Section 144 of CrPC (2022)
In January 2022, Rana was put in house arrest under Section 144 of CrPC for installing Shivaji Maharaj’s statue on Rajapeth flyover, Amravati, on the night of 12 January 2022, on the occasion of the Shivaji Maharaj’s mother’s birthday. Police commissioner Arti Singh claimed that Rana and his followers had illegally encroached upon the flyover land to install the statue. In the aftermath of the incident, Yuva Swabhiman Party activists burnt an effigy of Amravati municipal commissioner Pravin Ashtikar in front of Rana’s house in protest.
Booked for Attempt to Murder (2022)
Ravi Rana was booked for an attempt to murder over an assault on the Amravati Municipal Commissioner. Some women workers of Rana’s Yuva Swabhiman Party splashed ink upon Amravati Municipal Commissioner Dr Pravin Ashtikar. Apparently, the activists were angry with the removal of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which was being installed in Rajapeth flyover, Amravati. Allegedly, the statue was being installed without seeking formal permission from the Municipal Corporation; therefore, it was removed. Rana claimed that he was not present at the spot at the time of the incident.
A picture featuring Yuva Swabhiman Party’s woman activist throwing ink at Amravati municipal commissioner Pravin Ashtikar
Arrested In Hanuman Chalisa Row (2022)
In April 2022, Rana and his wife, Navneet Kaur Rana, were arrested by Mumbai police and sent to 14 days of judicial custody on the orders of a local magistrate for chanting Hanuman Chalisa in front of Matoshree, the residence of Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray. The incident triggered protests by Shiv Sainiks. The couple had earlier announced that would recite Hanuman Chalisa in public if mosques continued to use loudspeakers for Azaan and other announcements. The Ranas were booked under IPC section 153 (A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), and section 135 of the Mumbai Police Act (violation of prohibitory orders of police). Later, the police also added IPC Section 124-A (sedition) in the case against them
Car Collection
Asset & Properties
Movable Assets
- Deposits in Banks, Financial Institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies: Rs 3,24,274
- LIC or other insurance Policies: Rs 14,70,000
- Motor Vehicles: Rs 30,41,255
Immovable Assets
- Agricultural Land: Rs 3,50,000
- Commercial Buildings: Rs 30,00,000
- Residential Buildings: Rs 1,87,00,000
Net Worth
As of 2019, his net worth is 2,80,24,668.
Facts/Trivia
- A brainchild of Ravi Rana, the mass marriage ceremony held in Vidarbha in 2011 led Rana’s name to be recorded in the India Book of Records since it was the largest mass marriage ceremony ever performed in history. With a budget of seven crores, the event integrated several communities’ matrimony.
A picture of Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana on their wedding day, along with Baba Ramdev, receiving the India Book of Records Certificate for Largest Mass Wedding
- In 2015, he made headlines when he saved an old man’s barbershop from encroachment. The shop belonged to a barber named Mahadeo Chandrabhan Dehankar, the sole bread earner of his family. While addressing the media, Dehankar said,
I have been running this shop for the last 40 years and meeting both ends of my family on the strength of it. I was shocked when AMC encroachment demolition squad served a notice on me. The thought of losing my bread and butter made me restless and I rushed to MLA Ravi Rana for help.”
- He is an adherent follower of Lord Ganesha.
Ravi Rana carrying Lord Ganesha’s statue for visarjan