Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, are giving a final push to the candidature of Kirit Somaiya, party’s sitting MP from the Mumbai North East constituency, who is facing opposition from the Shiv Sena.
Sources in the party said the CM this week had rushed to meet party president Amit Shah to push for Mr. Somaiya’s nomination. The BJP on Friday announced the name of former Congressman Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalkar for the prestigious Madha constituency in Solapur, thereby finalising candidates for 24 of the 25 seats it will be contesting in Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats.
“We have tried as much as we could at our level for Mr. Somaiya’s name during our meeting with the party high command this week,” a BJP minister said.
Mr. Somaiya’s name did not feature in the first list of 16 candidates announced by the BJP for Maharashtra, which included two from Mumbai.
The next list of six also did not have the name of the incumbent MP, who represented the constituency in the 13th and 16th Lok Sabha.
Mr. Somaiya was rumoured to have met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday, but party leaders denied the meeting and said they have trust in the high command to take the right decision. “He (Mr. Somaiya) never asked for a meeting with Matoshree. It was a rumour. Mr. Thackeray and the CM are trying their best to win the North East seat. The right decision will be taken at the right time,” Cabinet Minister and senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde said on Friday.
Mr. Somaiya, who defeated the Nationalist Congress Party’s Sanjay Dina Patil in 2014, has made corruption charges against several Sena leaders, including the party chief. The Sena has, since the alliance was announced, opposed his candidature.
