His presidential address to the Session was the "Best delivered so far" as it was hailed by a contemporary journal of that period. Twice he was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council and was also elected to the Imperial Legislative Council (1896–1898).
Quotations: "We should endeavour to promote personal intimacy and friendship amongst all the great communities of India, to develop and consolidate sentiments of national growth and unity, to weld them together into one nationality, to effect a moral union amongst them, to remove the taunt that we are not a nation, but only a congeries of races and creeds which have no cohesion in them and to bring about stronger and stronger friendly ties of common nationality." — From the Presidential Address, I.N.C., - Rahimtulla M. Sayani I.N.C. Session, 1896, Calcutta.
