Narayan Rane claims Sena stalled his entry into BJP

Former chief minister Narayan Rane, who quit the Congress two years ago, has claimed that his entry into the BJP was stalled by the Shiv Sena, which threatened it would pull out of the government if he was inducted into the BJP and the state cabinet. The former Shiv Sainik claims a senior BJP minister, considered next to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was actively wooing him, developed cold feet after realising one of his "very plum" portfolios would be handed over to Rane.

Rane, a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP quota, claimed a "long-standing" offer from the BJP since before the 2014 polls to join them, but considering quitting the Congress due to the politics in his erstwhile party.

In his autobiography, 'No Holds Barred: My Years in Politics,' (Harper Collins), he writes Fadnavis made the offer to him in 2017 and offered any position he would seek in Maharashtra or Delhi.

"A senior BJP leader in the state, considered second only to the CM, came to my house directly in Ubers more than a few times, bearing 'messages from Ahmedabad or Varsha' to negotiate the terms of my joining," said Rane.

This made the Shiv Sena, which criticised the BJP despite being and ally and part of the regime, "more and more uncomfortable." The autobiography also details how Rane resigned from the Sena in 2005 after a power struggle with Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.

Rane finally made up his mind on the first day of Navratri in 2017 to leave the Congress regardless of whether he would join the BJP or not.

Rane claimed that as time passed, the Sena's attack on him and the BJP intensified, and they gave a "clear ultimatum" to the BJP leadership that if he was inducted into the party and the state cabinet, they would quit the government, which would fall. He said his loyalists within the Sena had told him about Uddhav's threats being empty. However, despite Rane trying to allay Fadnavis' fears, he seemed unconvinced.

"The other leaders too disappeared into thin air, especially the one who visited my house in taxis and courted me non-stop. He had learnt that if I joined the BJP, one of his very plum portfolios would be handed over to me. So, forgetting all about 'the larger good' of the party, as he had repeatedly put it to me, he decided to save his burning house first," he said.