Early in 1999, when Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray decided to instal a new chief minister in Maharashtra, he was asked who the man of his choice was. 'New CM? Narayan Rane,' he replied, as though the question need not even have arisen. His pick was a mass leader who had first caught his attention as a teenager in a Mumbai suburb when Thackeray had just started his party in the 1960s. The committed Shiv Sainik with close access to the supremo, however, stormed out of the party and join...