Maharashtra ministry reshuffle before winter session, Narayan Rane to join: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will reshuffle his ministry before the winter session of the state legislature and it will see the induction of former Shiv Sena and Congress leader Narayan Rane.

"Rane has joined the NDA. He will be inducted into the state ministry. He will be a minister from our (BJP) quota," Fadnavis said. The BJP-led Maharashtra government completes three years in office on Tuesday.

The reshuffle will take place before the winter session of the state legislature, scheduled to begin in Nagpur on December 11, Fadnavis said.

The CM said the Shiv Sena would have objected to Rane's induction had he "come to us from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party". "But, he was in the Congress for a decade after leaving the Sena," Fadnavis said.

Rane had set up his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, after resigning from the Congress last month. He was Maharashtra chief minister in 1999 when he was in the Shiv Sena. He had quit the Sena in 2005 and joined the Congress.

Asked if he had conveyed to the Sena that it should learn to accept the BJP as "Big Brother" due to its good numbers in the Assembly, Fadnavis said, "I do not believe (in the concept of) 'Big Brother'." "We have always respected (Sena founder) Balasaheb Thackeray. (Sena chief) Uddhav Thackeray is senior to me in age and position. But the public decided (in the 2014 assembly polls) as to which party is senior," he said.

PTI