Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane's Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha will not be merged into the BJP without taking ally Shiv Sena into confidence, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.
Rane had stated on Thursday that he would be joining the BJP in Solapur in the presence of the party's national president Amit Shah on September 1.
His formal entry into the BJP may cause some discomfort to the Sena from which he was expelled in 2005.
"Rane is already an MP of our party. So there is no question of inducting him," Fadnavis told a news channel.
"He wants to merge his party with the BJP. We are discussing it. But we want to take Shiv Sena into confidence before the merger," Fadnavis added.
"It will not be right" for the BJP to take decision about the merger without keeping the Sena in the loop, he added.
Rane, a former chief minister, was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the BJP's backing after he quit the Congress in 2017.
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