Amravati civic polls: 22 BJP candidates claim Navneet Rana campaigned against party

Nagpur, Jan 18 (PTI) Twenty-two BJP candidates in the just concluded Amravati Municipal Corporation polls have written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, demanding expulsion of former MP Navneet Rana for allegedly campaigning against the party.

Out of the 22 complainants, two won, while 20 lost the civic polls held on January 15.

They claimed that former Amravati Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana aggressively dubbed the saffron party nominees as "dummies" and promoted contestants of her husband Ravi Rana's Yuva Swabhiman Party as the "real BJP candidates".

Ahead of the civic polls, the BJP and MLA Ravi Rana's Yuva Swabhiman Party had broken their alliance. A local BJP leader had, however, said that Navneet Rana will continue to campaign for the saffron party candidates.

In the 87-member Amravati Municipal Corporation, the BJP won 25 seats, Yuva Swabhiman Party and Congress got 15 each, AIMIM 12, NCP 11, Shiv Sena and BSP 3 each, Shiv Sena (UBT) 2 and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi secured 1 seat.

In the previous election, the BJP had won 45 seats and the Yuva Swabhiman Party got 3 seats.

Aggrieved by the defeat of 20 BJP candidates, both the losers and the two winners on Saturday wrote a letter to CM Devendra Fadnavis, alleging their loss was caused not by the people but by Navneet Rana.

"We are devoted and hardworking party workers, connected with society. But our defeat in this election is not due to the Opposition, but because of senior BJP leader Navneet Rana openly campaigning against the party," they said.

They have demanded that Navneet Rana be expelled from the BJP and alleged that if she is not shown the door, she will destroy the party's presence in Amravati city in the future.

The former MP's reaction was not available on the matter. PTI COR CLS GK