Former Congress leader Narayan Rane who on Sunday launched Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh party has said that he has been invited by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to join the NDA. Rane was quoted by news agency ANI saying, "Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis invited me to join NDA, I sought two days' time to answer." Narayan who had shown interest in joining the NDA while launching his party just over 48 hours ago has sought two days time from the CM to decide on the proposal. There were speculations that the NDA will accommodate Rane, as he had already made it clear that he would be taking the Congress and Shiv Sena head on. After launching the party, Rane had said, “We will focus our politics on development, and work for the common people.” In a clear departure from his aggressive politics, the Konkan strongman said, “We are not going to adopt double standards like the Shiv Sena, which is playing both ruling and opposition role.” Rane left the Congress after accusing the party of going back on its promise of making him the chief minister. Rane claimed that he was promised the job on two occasions — once by Congress MP Ahmed Patel and another time by party president Sonia Gandhi. However, Ashok Chavan was made the chief minister instead, after Vilasrao Deshmukh was forced to resign. Taking a strong stand in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bullet train project, Rane had slammed Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, questioning their understanding of development projects. The general opinion in the political circles is that the litmus test for Rane’s regional party would be to work with the BJP’s grassroots workers in Konkan where Shiv Sena has the stronghold.
