'Rane likely to join NCP'

The Nationalist Congress Party said on Sunday that former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, who was expelled by the Shiv Sena, is welcome to its fold.

"Rane is welcome to the NCP. The party will discuss and decide when the situation arises", D P Tripathi, NCP general secretary incharge of Maharashtra, told PTI here.

Reacting to the expulsion of Rane, Tripathi said "though what has happened is an internal matter of the Shiv Sena, the NCP is watching and assessing the development, which smacks of authoritarian functioning of the Sena".

NCP sources said Rane had "more than a couple of meetings" with Pawar and claimed that the former chief minister was likely to join the NCP.

Chhagan Bhujbal, a prominent former Sena leader who had led the first rebellion in that party over a decade ago, is
currently in the NCP and is a senior minister in Maharashtra.

Pawar's party had made inroads in the Konkan region, the home turf of Rane, in the last assembly elections at the cost of Shiv Sena which used to boast the region as its bastion.

Pawar, who is also the Union agriculture minister, is at present away on an official visit to Brazil and is expected to return on July 8.

NCP is the single largest pasrty in Maharashtra having two MLAs more than Congress which is heading the ruling coalition.