BJP will form govt in Maharashtra in March, says Narayan Rane

Union minister Narayan Rane on Friday claimed that the BJP will form government in Maharashtra in March.

Rane's statement came on a day when state BJP leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Chandrakant Patil as well as NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his party colleague Praful Patel were in the national capital, sparking speculation.

But leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) pooh-poohed Rane's statement, asserting that there was no threat to the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government which will complete two years on Saturday.

Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, sources said.

Speaking to reporters in Jaipur, Rane said, "BJP will form government in Maharashtra in March."

Asked to elaborate, he said toppling and forming governments is done in secrecy and it can not be discussed in public.

"State (BJP) president Chandrakant Patil has spoken about this and I hope it comes true," Rane said.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole told reporters in Nagpur that the government will complete its full term.

"BJP keeps making big predictions and they don't come true....Nobody believes BJP," he said.

NCP spokesperson and state minister Nawab Malik said leaders like Fadnavis were tired of predicting the fall of the MVA government, so the BJP has deployed "new players" like Rane for the same.

''Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has already made it clear that the MVA will not just complete its five-year term but last for 25 years,'' said Malik.

Sources in the BJP and NCP played down the significance of the visits of their respective leaders to the national capital at the same time.

Fadnavis and Patil were in Delhi to discuss "organizational matters" with the central leadership, said a BJP leader.

Pawar traveled to Delhi to attend a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on defense and his schedule had been planned a week ago, an NCP source said.

The BJP should stop giving such deadlines, said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

"It is making itself a laughing stock," the Rajya Sabha member said.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said on a sarcastic note that they were "grateful" to Rane for giving the government time till March.

The MVA government was formed in November 2019, after Assembly elections, as the Shiv Sena walked out of its decades-old alliance with the BJP over the issue of sharing the chief minister's post.