Mumbai: Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane on Wednesday expressed his growing impatience with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for failing to induct him into the party.
Mr Rane, a sitting MP representing Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha, said that he will take a decision in the next 10 days whether to continue with his own party – Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh (MSP) — or join the BJP.
“There is a certain limit to waiting. I will take a call in the next 10 days. The BJP has not yet fulfilled the promises given to me,” the Konkan strongman said.
Though elected as a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP’s quota, the saffron party has still not inducted Mr Rane into the party — possibily fearing Sena’s wrath.
The former chief minister claimed that BJP chief Amit Shah has given a green signal for his induction into the party. “I am now awaiting chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ response,” he added.
When asked whether his son and sitting Congress MLA will be contesting the Assembly election as a BJP candidate, Mr Rane chose to be speculative.
“Nitesh will not be contesting forthcoming election on Congress’ ticket. That is for sure. He could be the BJP candidate or he could be the Swabhiman Party candidate. It entirely depends on the chief minister, who has to take the decision,” Mr Rane said.
Mr Rane, a former Shiv Sena heavyweight, was the chief minister for nearly nine months in 1999. He quit the Sena over differences with the then executive president of the party, Uddhav Thackeray, in 2005.
The Konkan strongman later joined the Congress with an alleged promise that he would be made the chief minister. However, he was never offered the post and ended up as a minister in the Congress-NCP Cabinet.
In 2014, he lost the Assembly poll to Sena’s Vaibhav Naik. A year later, he lost the Bandra Assembly bypoll.
Even though made an MLC, Mr Rane quit the Congress in 2017 and formed his own party — MSP.
