Yuva Swabhiman Party MLA Ravi Rana offers unconditional support to BJP

On Sunday, yet another Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Maharashtra, Ravi Rana offered his unconditional support to BJP for the formation of the government in the state. Rana, the head of Yuva Swabhiman Party won from the Badnera constituency in Amravati. In his letter, he clearly mentioned that Devendra Fadnavis had to be the Chief Minister for Maharashtra to be strengthened. He claimed that a government led by Fadnavis would be able to solve the problems of the common man and render justice to the farmers and workers.  

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Independents extend support

BJP secured 105 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, while its alliance partner Shiv Sena could bag only 56 seats. This has led to a tussle between the two parties over the CM post. Since the declaration of results, both BJP and Congress have been welcoming the support of Independents to leverage their individual positions. For instance, Achalpur MLA Bachchu Kadu and Melghat MLA Rajkumar Patel belonging to the Prahar Janshakti Party (PJP) met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his Matoshree residence and extended their support. This was followed by BJP rebel MLA Geeta Jain and Independent legislator Rajendra Raut joining hands with the BJP. 

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Ravi Rana's victory

The Badnera constituency has witnessed the victory of Ravi Rana from 2009. On the first two occasions in the 2009 and 2014 election, he beat the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate by a very high margin. In the current election, he defeated Shiv Sena’s Priti Sanjay Band by 15,541 votes. While he has been supporting the BJP government in Maharashtra since 2014, his wife Navneet Kaur Rana won from the Amravati constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with the backing of Congress and NCP.  

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