Narayan Rane not likely to contest poll

Mumbai: It is now clear that newly-formed party Maharashtra Swabhimaan Paksh's leader, Narayan Rane, will not contest upcoming council elections on December 7. Looking at the possibility of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena coming together to defeat the BJP-supported candidate, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has decided not to take the risk and give an opportunity to his opponents to defeat him and render his government unstable. Instead, Mr Rane will contest elections to 11 seats of the Legislative Council in June 2018. The 11 seats will be elected through members of the Legislative Assembly, where each contestant will need 26 seats to win. The BJP will field Mr Rane in these elections.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar had proposed contesting the BJP candidate in case of poaching. He had appealed to leaders from the Sena and Congress that all three parties field one candidate each to defeat the BJP-supported candidate. Sources indicated that the BJP leadership had taken serious note of this statement and as such, the CM was in no mood to field Mr Rane ahead of the politically sensitive Gujarat elections as well as the winter session of the state legislature. Hence, the CM had conveyed to Mr Rane to wait it out and the latter too, had agreed.

One of Mr Rane’s closest colleagues on condition of anonymity said, “Mr Fadnavis has promised Mr Rane that the latter will be given a ticket for the MLC elections in June next year. Before that, he will be made a Cabinet minister in the government.”

The recent meeting between Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai has brought on the cloud of political instability. It is believed that Mr Thackeray will ditch the BJP government in case Mr Rane is inducted into the state cabinet. But, if the Gujarat election results are in favour of BJP, Mr Thackeray will be forced to think twice before taking any such decision.

In this backdrop, the BJP high command is in no mood to disturb state politics ahead of the Gujarat elections. This is also why the CM is taking extra care and has decided not to confront a possible Sena-Congress-NCP alliance in the forthcoming council elections.