It is 11.30am at Shankar Nagar in Amravati, and mercury has already soared to 46 degrees Celsius. A crowd has gathered outside the bungalow of Amravati’s new MP, Navnit Rana. Most people just want to click a selfie with the actor-turned-politician, but not Shaikh Ali Guruji of Ridhapur village. He is there to find a solution to his problem. Someone, he says, is trying to grab land that belongs to the mosque in his village. Navnit listens to him, and promises to take care of the matter.
As she steps out of the bungalow, her husband, Badnera MLA Ravi Rana, arrives in a Toyota Fortuner. Ali Guruji makes his way through the swarm of supporters surrounding Ravi and lodges another appeal. Ravi, too, is all ears, and asks his assistant to get copies of Ali Guruji’s papers. As the villager leaves satisfied, Ravi enters his home to have lunch. The MLA has left by the time the MP returns from her meetings.
“This is how it has been since the day after the results,” Navnit tells THE WEEK. “I returned home at 3am yesterday and was up by seven, as people start coming by 8am.”
Her new routine, perhaps, is not as difficult as the coup she pulled off—defeating Shiv Sena stalwart and five-time MP Anandrao Vithoba Adsul. In 2014, Navnit had contested on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket and lost to Adsul. This time, she fought him as an independent and won by about 37,000 votes. “Adsul had lost touch with the people; work was not happening. He got votes because of the Modi wave,” she says.
Navnit did not contest on an NCP ticket because she and Ravi sensed the strong undercurrent in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ravi, too, does not belong to any party. “He is a close friend of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,” she says. “But contesting on a BJP ticket was out of the question, because this constituency belongs to the Sena. Also, I have immense respect for [NCP president] Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. We had decided almost a year ago that I will contest as an independent.”
Born and brought up in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar and Andheri suburbs, Navnit began acting when she was 14. “My schoolteacher told me to audition for a music video,” she says. “They wanted a girl with Kashmiri looks. I had long hair, and my cheeks were pink. So I went and got selected. After two such videos, I was offered a Kannada film.”
Navnit has acted in 25 films, most of them Telugu. She has also starred opposite Malayalam superstar Mammooty in Love In Singapore. “Having worked in southern films, I can speak six languages,” she says. “But Malayalam is the most difficult of all southern languages.”
Navnit and Ravi are followers of Baba Ramdev, and they first met each other at his yoga camp. “We became friends. After the camp, I got busy with films and he was busy with politics, as he had already become a legislator. Then we met again at another yoga camp and became close friends,” she says.
Navnit married Rana in 2011 in a no-frills mass marriage ceremony, where 3,100 couples tied the knot. She quit acting and began concentrating on social work.
As MP, Navnit has hit the ground running. She recently met Fadnavis to get land sanctioned for a pharmaceutical factory. “Harman [Finochem] has agreed to set up a plant here,” she says. “It will create 2,000-3000 jobs.”
What are her long-term priorities? “Amravati is the second biggest city in Vidarbha, but it has no airport,” she says. “So my first goal is to get an airport. Then I want to get a government medical college and research institution. Third, I want to develop Chikhaldara [hill station] as a national tourist destination. I want to get all the clearances for the Brahmasati dam, which will solve the water problems of that area. Lastly, I want to create a separate Achalpur district, as Amravati is too big.”
Navnit Rana
Age 33
Party: Independent
Constituency: Amravati (SC), Maharashtra
Vote share: 45.93%
Education: SSC