more-in Congress MLA Nitesh Rane has dismissed speculations that his father and senior party leader Narayan Rane is planning to join the BJP. Political circles are abuzz with talks of the senior leader switching over to the saffron party and meeting BJP leaders in New Delhi. “My father had gone to Delhi on Monday for personal work. I would like to categorically state that we will continue to be with the Congress,” Mr. Nitesh Rane, the MLA from Kudal, said. He alleged that an air of mistrust is being created about his family. “I will not raise the issue at a party forum, unless I have the proof as to who is spreading such rumours. We expect introspection for the party’s electoral defeats. If the Congress can win in Punjab, it can win in Maharashtra as well. As a party worker and a member of the Rane family, I would say we want to strengthen the Congress,” said Mr. Nitesh Rane. “The need of the hour is to stay united. If that happens, the party can expect to have its chief minister (in Maharashtra) in 2019. We have never said that we are planning to quit the party.” Referring to his father’s political earthquake remark, he said it is his father’s style of speech. On the party’s win in the Sindhudurg zilla parishad election, the Congress MLA said his family is delivering the results and wants the party to do well in the State. He said he will take part in the Sangharsh Yatra being organised by the Opposition parties on Wednesday to highlight the plight of farmers, and added that his father will take up the issue in the Legislative Council. Earlier, Nilesh, the elder son of Mr. Narayan Rane, had written to the central leadership of the Congress, seeking removal of Ashok Chavan from the post of the party’s Maharashtra unit chief if it harbours hopes of returning to power in the State. On March 23, Mr. Narayan Rane too had scotched the rumours that he is going to quit the party, and alleged that such things are being spread by his detractors within the party.

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