Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister and Maharashtra Swabhiman Party (MSP) on Sunday expressed confidence that he would be inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet during the State Budget Session, beginning on February 26.
Talking to mediapersons during his tour of Marathwada region, Narayan Rane said: “I am expecting my inclusion into the State Cabinet. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured me that he would soon induct me into his Cabinet”.
Rane has been lobbying with the Chief Minister ever since quit the Congress on September 21, 2017 and floated a new political outfit “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” on October 1. On October 6, Rane announced that new political outfit MSP had decided to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The MSP’s decision to join the NDA had followed an invitation that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had extended to Rane, when the latter met Fadnavis on November 27.
Rane had extended his party’s support to the NDA in the hope that he would be inducted into the State Cabinet. It may be recalled that Rane, who was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra between February 1 1999 and October 17, 1999 when the Sena-BJP alliance was ruling the State, had joined the Congress on July 30, 2005 last year after having been expelled from the Shiv Sena.