MUMBAI: The BJP has managed to convince former Congress leader Narayan Rane to accept the party’s offer of a Rajya Sabha seat — the move is seen as an attempt to mend its relations with estranged ally Shiv Sena. The party had Rane form his own party — the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh — after he quit the Congress, in a bid to allay the Sena anger that the BJP was inducting a former Sena leader into the party directly. The fallout was so bitter that Rane kept making personal attacks on Uddhav and his family, with the Sena responding in kind. The Sena’s opposition to Rane’s entry into the Devendra Fadnavis government shows that it is in no mood to forgive. What remains to be seen though, is whether such overtures by the BJP makes the Sena change its stand on going on its own for the 2019 polls.

Source: Economic Times March 03, 2018 01:41 UTC