Minister Narayan Rane Visits Bal Thackeray Memorial, Targets Shiv Sena

Narayan Rane's tour is being seen a major show of strength by the BJP ahead of the crucial BMC polls, due early next year.

Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane paid homage to Shiv Sena supremo late Balasaheb Thackeray at his memorial here on Thursday and later claimed the BJP will win the forthcoming polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, currently ruled by the Sena. Earlier, Sena MP Vinayak Raut had opposed Mr Rane's visit to the memorial at the Shivaji Park in Dadar area, saying he had no right to pay respects to Balasaheb Thackeray as the BJP leader's actions of "breaking the Shiv Sena" caused a lot of pain to the party founder. But, Sena's Dadar MLA Sada Sarvankar said he had no directives from the party leadership to prevent Mr Rane from visiting the memorial, during the latter's ''Jan Ashirwad Yatra'' in the city. Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, who was earlier with the Sena before joining the Congress and subsequently switching over to the BJP in 2019, also visited Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar's memorial located nearby.