Former Chief Minister Narayan Rane announced on Friday that the new political outfit Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP), which he founded on October 1, had decided to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Talking to media persons in Sindhudurg, Rane said, “We have decided to join the NDA to ensure over-all development of coastal Konkan region”.
Rane, who had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress on September 21, said that all the erstwhile office bearers of Sindhudurg district Congress unit would now be office bearers of the MSP.
He also claimed that in the just-held Grampanchayat elections, his party men had been elected unopposed as the Sarpanchs of as many as 27 villages in Sindhudurg district.
The MSP’s decision to join the NDA follows an invitation that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had extended to Rane, when the latter met Fadnavis on Tuesday. On that day, Rane had sought two days’ time to decide on Fadnavis’ invitation to join the NDA.
With the MSP announcing its decision to join the NDA, the chances of Rane joining the Maharashtra Cabinet as a senior Minister have brightened.
Sources in the BJP-led saffron alliance said that as per the understanding reached between him and the BJP leadership late last month, it was only a matter of time before Rane joined the State Cabinet.
Indirectly hinting at the possibility of his joining the State Cabinet, Rane said that he would remain in Maharashtra till 2019. “As of now, I will be in Maharashtra till 2019,” Rane said, thus discounting the possibility of his nomination to Rajya Sabha in the near future.
Rane, who had viciously criticised the Shiv Sena and its president Uddhav Thackeray on his floating MSP, appeared to have watered down his views on the Shiv Sena. “I do not consider Shiv Sena as my opponent. But, the fact remains that I do not approve of the Sena’s ideology. I am yet to decide as to who is MSP’s political opponent,” he said.
Rane’s softened approach towards the Shiv Sena should be seen in the light of the realisation that as a constituent of the BJP-led saffron alliance in Maharashtra, he would have to deal with the Sena as an alliance partner and he could not go overboard criticising the Uddhav Thackeray-led party merely for the heck of it.