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NAGPUR, January 18, 2026: A political controversy has erupted in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region after 22 candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis alleging that former Amravati Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana actively campaigned against the party during the recently concluded civic elections in Amravati.
The complainants, who contested the polls to the Amravati Municipal Corporation, claimed that Navneet Rana publicly derided official BJP nominees as “dummies” and urged voters to back candidates of the Yuva Swabhiman Party, led by her husband and local MLA Ravi Rana, projecting them as the “real BJP” representatives.
Of the 22 candidates who signed the letter, two emerged victorious while 20 were defeated in the civic polls held on January 15. In their representation to the chief minister, the candidates alleged that their losses were not the result of anti-incumbency or voter sentiment, but stemmed from what they described as open and sustained campaigning against them by a senior party leader.
Election results in the 87-member civic body showed the Bharatiya Janata Party securing 25 seats, a sharp decline from its earlier tally of 45. The Yuva Swabhiman Party and the Congress won 15 seats each, while AIMIM secured 12 seats, the NCP 11, Shiv Sena and BSP three seats each, Shiv Sena (UBT) two seats, and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi one seat. In the previous election, the Yuva Swabhiman Party had managed only three seats.
The complainants pointed out that the BJP and the Yuva Swabhiman Party had parted ways ahead of the civic polls, making the alleged campaign by Navneet Rana particularly damaging to the party’s prospects in the city. They demanded strict disciplinary action, including her expulsion from the party, warning that failure to act could further weaken the BJP’s organisational presence in Amravati.
A section of local BJP leaders, however, maintained that Navneet Rana would continue to work for the party and dismissed the allegations as an emotional reaction to electoral defeat. As of Sunday evening, there was no official response from Navneet Rana to the charges outlined in the letter.
The episode has highlighted internal fault lines within the BJP’s Amravati unit at a time when the party is recalibrating its strategy following mixed results in Maharashtra’s civic polls.
