Rane joined Shiv Sena in his early twenties and started his political career as local Shakha Pramukh at Chembur, Mumbai. Then he became the Councillor of Kopargaon. In 1999, when Manohar Joshi stepped down from the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Rane succeeded him. Rane publicly criticized Shiv Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray and questioned his administration abilities. Shiv Sena subsequently expelled Rane from the party on 3 July 2005. . Subsequently, he also resigned from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Rane later joined the Indian National Congress and was made the Revenue Minister of Maharashtra. Rane sought re-election from his Malvan seat in the Konkan region on a Congress ticket and won with a lead of over 50,000 votes. On 21 July, Rane submitted his resignation to the chief minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, to quit the post of Industries minister in Chavan's cabinet. In the wake of 2008 Mumbai attacks, Vilasrao Deshmukh, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra was removed from the Chief Ministerial Post and Ashok Chavan was made Chief Minister. As soon as Chavan was made Chief Minister, Rane protested against Congress Party and its senior leaders resulting in his suspension from Congress for six years. Later Rane apologize to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and was later inducted back into Congress Party and was made Minister for Industry of Maharashtra. Rane supervised the debut of his two sons- Nitesh and Nilesh into Maharashtra politics. On 21 September 2017, Rane voluntarily left Congress.
Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha
On 1 October 2017, Rane floated a new political party called the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha and indicated to ally with Bharatiya Janata Party.
Newspaper ''Prahaar''
Rane launched the Marathi daily Prahaar on 8 October 2008, under the ownership of Rane Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. While he serves as the Consulting Editor, journalist Madhukar Bhave is the editor of the newspaper.
In August 2011, there was a dispute in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly alleging Rane’s involvement in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Pune-based RTI activist Ravindra Barhate said that Rane, during his tenure as revenue minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in 1998, had returned a prime plot of land in Pune to a person who had already received compensation from the government under the Land Acquisition Act. In 1998 revenue minister Rane, in his position as a quasi-judicial authority, had decided in favour of Datta Bahirat who had given his power of attorney to Rohan Builders. Bahirat through Rohan Builders had sought to return his land that had been acquired by the government for housing flood-affected persons following the rupture of the Panshet Dam at Pune in 1961. Citing a 1994 High Court order, Rane gave back the unused 2.15 lakh sq feet of the 2.75 lakh sq feet to Bahirat on the repayment of '16 lakh to the government exchequer. In Jan 2011, a delegation of Shiv Sena leaders met Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, demanding a separate inquiry into alleged land scams which took place during the tenure of the then revenue minister Rane. The Sena leaders alleged that the state lost revenue of crores of rupees after Rane de-reserved several government plots in favour of individuals or private companies. Most of the matters later landed in the court. In February 2011, the Bombay High Court issued Rane a notice following allegations that an organisation headed by his wife Neelam misused a plot of land in Andheri leased to the organisation, and built a restaurant on it. A public interest litigation, filed by Ashok Karangutkar, alleged that the Sindhudurg Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, of which Neelam Rane is president, set up The Jail Restaurant & Lounge in Sindhudurg Bhavan at Four Bungalows, Andheri, on a plot given to it for educational activities.
