No immediate entry for Narayan Rane in BJP

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, September 26

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Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane is unlikely to join the BJP immediately, party sources said.

Rane met with BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday ostensibly to invite him for the inauguration of his hospital in his constituency Kudal. “It was a courtesy call and no politics was discussed at the meeting,” a BJP leader from Mumbai said.

BJP leaders in Maharashtra, particularly those belonging to the Maratha community who are opposed to Rane, are at pains to deny any plans by the party to induct Rane. While Rane's supporters say he is looking for a ministerial berth for either himself or his son in the state cabinet, BJP leaders say it would not be possible to accommodate the Shiv Sainik-turned-Congressman.

Rane, who has already quit the Congress party, is now under pressure from his supporters to contest the forthcoming panchayat elections on his own.

Observers say Rane may have to at least tie up with the BJP to ensure that he retains some of his hold in his home turf. Apart from the Shiv Sena, Rane will to face the Congress party as well in the forthcoming panchayat polls.

Shortly before Rane's departure from the Congress, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan had dissolved the party's unit in Sindhudurg thus ensuring that the party did not lose its structure in the region. Veteran Congressmen who were chafing under Rane for the last 12 years have been brought back to take charge of
the party.

The Shiv Sena too has managed to retain its core support base in the Konkan region even after Rane's defection. Rane's hope even now is that the BJP with a skeletal presence in Sindhudurg district will take him in to build a base for itself.

With Rane's entry into the BJP uncertain, Rane's son Nitesh — an MLA from the Congress party — is staying put.