Two Sena MLAs join Congress

In a setback to Shiv Sena, two party legislators and supporters of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, on Friday resigned from the membership of the legislative assembly and joined the Congress.

Kalidas Kolambkar and Shyam Sawant submitted their resignation from the Assembly Friday afternoon to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar and later proceeded to the Congress office in south Mumbai, where they formally joined the party in the presence of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prabha Rau and Rane.

After being expelled from Shiv Sena in July 2005 Rane had joined Congress and was made Revenue Minister.

Earlier, three Rane supporters quit their assembly seat which they had won as Sena nominees in 2004 polls, and had joined Congress. Congress has fielded the three, Ganpat Kadam (Rajapur), Subhash Bane (Sangameshwar) and Shankar Kambli (Vengurla) for the January 21 assembly by poll for the three seats.