BJP denies ticket to Kirit Somaiya, fields Manoj Kotak

Mumbai: In a major political decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied a ticket to its sitting MP Kirit Somaiya from the Mumbai North East constituency and instead decided to field senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Manoj Kotak from there for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. The move is seen as the BJP bowing down to the pressure of its ally Shiv Sena, which had vehemently opposed Mr Somaiya’s re-nomination from the constituency.

The decision to drop Mr Somaiya from the BJP list was announced by the party’s Central Parliamentary Board in New Delhi. Mr Kotak, who is the group leader of the BJP in the civic body, will take on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate and former MP Sanjay Dina Patil, who had lost to Mr Somaiya in the 2014 elections.

Ever since the BJP and Sena decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls together, the latter had opposed Mr Somaiya’s candidature from Mumbai North East. Sena workers had threatened not to campaign for the BJP if Mr Somaiya was re-nominated. Sunil Raut, a Sena MLA from Bhandup, had even announced he would contest as an independent if Mr Somaiya were given a ticket again.

Senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde admitted that the decision to deny a ticket to Mr Somaiya was taken due to ‘ground realities. “Mr Somaiya has contested the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and even won them in the past. However, the decision this time has been taken keeping the ground realities in mind. It has nothing to do with the Sena’s opposition,” he said.

According to party sources, Mr Somaiya had to pay the price for his tirade against the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray during the 2017 BMC elections. In the run-up to the polls, which the BJP and the Sena had contested separately, Mr Somaiya had targeted the Sena chief by calling him the ‘mafia of Bandra.’ Mr Thackeray’s residence ‘Matoshree’ is located in Bandra.