Originally elected as a member of the Indian National Congress, Rana defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party in August 2022.
The following year, he became a board member of the Himachal Pradesh Small Saving Bank, holding that position until 2003.
Rana has supported the re-opening an old colonial-era railway line that connects to Nalagarh from the town of Ghanauli in Punjab, and has claimed that the state has not sufficiently incentivized industrialists to operate in the area.
[7][8] On 17 August 2022, Rana and Pawan Kumar Kajal, the working president of the state party, both defected and joined the BJP.
[10] The defection of the two senior Congress officials was deemed to be a major blow to the party just a few months prior to the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.