The Bharatiya Janata Party has offered former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane a seat in the Rajya Sabha. Rane had left the Congress and floated a new party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh, in October 2017. The outfit will support the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, he had said.

Rane confirmed that he was offered the seat and said, “I have sought some time from them to convey my decision,” according to The Indian Express. The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting between Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Rane in New Delhi earlier this week.

Rane told the daily that he would have preferred a seat in the Maharashtra Cabinet for now and move to New Delhi after the 2019 general elections. But he added: “I understand there are some problems for the chief minister to consider my candidature in the state government.” BJP ally Shiv Sena, however, is reportedly against Rane’s induction into the Cabinet.

Rane had resigned from the Congress a day after he claimed that the party had gone back on its promise of making him the chief minister of Maharashtra. “I went to the Congress because I was assured that I will be made chief minister in six months,” said Rane, who had joined the party in 2005 after being expelled from the Shiv Sena.

He had also claimed that the Shiv Sena had asked him to return to the party. “For me, there are vacancies everywhere, even in the Shiv Sena. But I won’t go there,” he said. Rane had criticised the Congress for being unfair to him and his supporters.