Santosh Rana disagreed with the actions of the Maoists in the Jungle Mahals. Santosh Rana, contesting as an independent, won the Gopiballavpur seat in 1977, but lost it in 1982. This faction was amongst the earliest Naxalites to take part in elections. Subsequently, Santosh Rana became general secretary of this party. The PCC, CPI(ML) evolved out of the group loyal to Satyanarayan Singh. In April 1973 Satyanarayan Singh's party was reorganized. Santosh Rana broke with Charu Majumdar in 1971 and later joined the group led by Satyanarayan Singh, a prominent leader, who also rebelled against Charu Majumdar in 1971, leading to a split in the CPI(ML). The CPI(ML) movement began to splinter by the early seventies and by 1971 or 1972, it was in shambles. Such pressure is always required in remote villages where landlords maintain personal armies.' CPI(ML) reorganisation This was not violence, it was people’s revolt. That was a big blow for the landlords or jotdars and they failed to resist our move to grab ceiling-excess land and distribute it among the landless bargadars. We endeared ourselves to poor peasants and landless by focusing on land issues as well as exploitation by the money-lenders.' He recollects, 'During my time, a mass of about 15,000 to 20,000 people, armed with lathis, stormed into the houses of the landlords who possessed firearms, and seized the arms. But mainly in densely populated Debra-Gopiballavpur along the bank of Subarnarekha river where class contradictions were sharp over land and wage questions. In an interview Santosh Rana said, 'In the seventies, we began our work not in forest areas like Nayagram, Binpur or Lalgarh.

Under his leadership, Debra, Gopiballavpur, Nayagram and Lodhasuli blocks of Midnapore district and adjoining areas in Bihar (now Jharkhand) and Orissa were 'virtually liberated'. He left his PhD unfinished, returned to his village in Gopiballavpur and joined the agrarian revolution.

The call of revolution inspired Santosh Rana. The first United Front government came to power in West Bengal in 1967 and in 1969 CPI(ML) heralded the launch of a new revolutionary party. Politically he was a supporter of the CPI(M). In the 1960s, Santosh Rana was a research scholar at University of Calcutta, Rajabazar Science College.

Rana received Ananda Puraskar for his book Rajnitir Ek Jibon in 2018. In the 1960s, he was a prominent figure in the armed struggle of the Naxalites led by Charu Majumdar. Santosh Rana (1942 – 29 June 2019) was an Indian politician.

রাজনীতির এক জীবন by Santosh Rana