BJP-backed MP Narayan Rane's outfit to contest LS polls

Senior Maharashtra politician Narayan Rane, currently a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP quota, Tuesday said his political outfit Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on its own.

In his turbulent political career spanning nearly four decades, Rane had worked in the Shiv Sena and then in Congress before floating his own political outfit in 2017.

Rane, once a strongman from coastal Konkan region, is reportedly smarting for being forced to be content with the Rajya Sabha berth though he was hoping for a ministerial assignment in the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

Rane called on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latter's official residence "Varsha" in south Mumbai Monday (January 21) night.

"We discussed many issues. But, I have already announced that my party Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh (MSP) will contest the Lok Sabha polls independently," Rane told PTI Tuesday.

He said the decision on the number of seats to be contested will be taken soon.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats.

Rane's son Nilesh Rane is expected to contest the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, which he represented during 2009-14 before he was trounced by Sena's Vinayak Raut.

The Sena and the BJP had contested the 2014 general elections in alliance but parted ways for the state assembly polls, held in October that year.

The Sena later joined the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Maharashtra.

Rane, who had served as a chief minister during the first stint of the NDA government in Maharashtra in 1990s, had walked out of Sena in 2005 and joined the Congress.

He held important portfolios in the successive Congress governments before he was suspended in 2008 for attacking the party leadership.

His suspension was revoked in 2009. Howver, Rane fell out again and finally quit the Congress in 2017. He then floated the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha.