11 January,2026 04:00 PM IST | Amravati | mid-day online correspondent
MLA Ravi Rana and his wife Navneet Rana. File Pic/PTI
Ahead of the Maharashtra local body elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and MLA Ravi Rana's Yuva Swabhiman Party have parted ways ahead of the January 15 Amravati civic polls, bringing an end to their pre-poll alliance, reported the PTI.
Confirming the development on Sunday, Amravati BJP district president Nitin Dhande said the party had withdrawn its support from the six seats earlier allotted to the Yuva Swabhiman Party.
"On these seats, we are supporting independent candidates who are ideologically aligned with the BJP. The Yuva Swabhiman Party failed to honour its commitment and fielded candidates against the BJP," Dhande alleged, according to the PTI.
Despite the split, Dhande clarified that Navneet Rana, former Lok Sabha MP and wife of Ravi Rana, will continue to campaign for BJP candidates during the civic polls.
Meanwhile, in an another development earlier this week, a Mumbai court on Wednesday discharged BJP leader and former Member of Parliament (MP) Navneet Rana in a fake caste certificate case, as per the PTI.
Her discharge plea was allowed by Judicial Magistrate First Class (Mazgaon court) A A Kulkarni.
A reasoned order was not available yet.
However, the case against her father Harbhajansingh Kundless will continue as the court adjourned the matter to February 16 for framing of charges against him, the news agency reported.
Rana, who claims to belong to a Scheduled Caste, is a former Independent Lok Sabha MP from Amravati (2019-24) in eastern Maharashtra. She later joined the BJP.
As per a complaint lodged at the Mulund police station in Mumbai, Rana and her father allegedly forged documents to obtain a caste certificate for her as the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, from where she contested, is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, reported the PTI.
The Bombay High Court in 2021 cancelled the caste certificate issued to Rana, saying it was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents.
However, in April 2024, the Supreme Court restored Rana's Scheduled Caste certificate, enabling her to contest the Lok Sabha elections. She had lost the 2024 elections in Amravati, where she was the BJP candidate.
Discharge is a pre-trial legal remedy available to an accused person against whom there is insufficient evidence.
(with PTI inputs)
