Former Chief Minister and Maharashtra Swabhimani Paksha (MSP) founder Chief Narayan Rane said on Thursday that he would merge his party with the ruling BJP on October 15.
Rane’s announcement came a week after sitting Congress MLA Nitesh Rane resigned from his membership, joined the BJP and filed his nomination on a ticket given by his new party for the October 21 Assembly polls from Kankavli constituency in Sindhudurg district.
There had been speculation in the State political circles that he would join the BJP along with his two son Nitesh and Nilesh. His entry to the BJP was being resisted by its ally Shiv Sena for a very long.
He had earlier announced that he would join the BJP on October 2.
Rane made an announcement about merging the MSP with the BJP, while campaigning for his party candidate Rajan Teli. “The BJP is getting strong in Konkan region. My son Nitesh and his supporters joined the BJP earlier. I will merge my party with the BJP in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on October 15,” he said.
Having been associated with the Shiv Sena since early seventies, Rane had emerged as a senior leader in the party and was made the chief minister of Maharashtra, a post he held between February 1, 1999 and October 17, 1999 when the Sena-BJP alliance was ruling the state.
However, after he rebelled against the leadership of then party’s executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Rane was expelled from the Shiv Sena on July 3, 2005.
He joined the Congress on July 30, 2005, expecting that one day he would be made a chief minister of the State — a dream that remained unfulfilled.
It may be recalled that after being in the Congress for 12-long years, Rane had quit the Sonia Gandhi party on September 21, 2017 after complaining that the party leadership had failed to fulfill its repeated promise of appointing him as the Chief Minister.