May 25 (AZINS) Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who left the Congress in 2017, is likely to re-join the party soon, sources on Saturday said. The party, which faced a virtual washout in Maharashtra and was able to win only one seat, is looking to regroup before the Assembly elections later this year. 

Sources said he has left from Maharashtra for Delhi to meet the senior leadership. If he re-joins the party, he may be appointed Maharashtra Congress president ahead of the assembly election which is likely to be held in October-November this year.

In his political career spanning nearly four decades, Rane had worked in the Shiv Sena and then in Congress before floating his own political outfit in 2017. He had joined the Congress in 2005 after being expelled from the Shiv Sena. Rane was expelled by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray after he voiced displeasure over Uddhav Thackeray gaining prominence in the party.

Rane, who has pockets of influence in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, left the Congress in 2017 after differences with the leadership and factionalism in Maharashtra.  He then founded his own outfit Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh, and was later elected to Rajya Sabha from the BJP quota.

His political outfit contested the Lok Sabha polls on its own and fielded candidates on five seats, all against the Shiv Sena. Rane's son Nilesh Rane contested the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat but lost to Sena’s Vinayak Raut by 1,77,000 votes. 

Rane was handpicked by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray as chief minister when he decided to remove the genial Manohar Joshi ahead of the 1999 Assembly election. He had walked out of Sena in 2005 and joined the Congress.

He held important portfolios in the successive Congress governments before he was suspended in 2008 for attacking the party leadership.

His suspension was revoked in 2009. However, Rane fell out again and finally quit the Congress in 2017. He then floated the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha.