In a major rejig, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday dropped senior leader and sitting Mumbai North East MP Kirit Somaiya from its list of candidates. In his place, the party has fielded Manoj Kotak from the constituency. The announcement was made as part of the 16th list of Lok Sabha elections 2019 candidates issued by the BJP.
Reports claim that his candidature was unopposed by the party top brass, but ally Shiv Sena had raised severe apprehensions.
Kirit Somaiya,sitting BJP MP from Mumbai North East: Very happy that Manoj Kotak ji standing with me here has got the ticket. We all will support him and ensure he wins.Ultimately our aim is a second term for Modi ji. Responsibilities within party keep shifting,nothing new in it. pic.twitter.com/5sIE2XCGcX
— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2019
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During the alliance talks held between BJP chief Amit Shah and his Sena counterpart Uddhav Thackeray in February, the candidature of Somaiya was one of the major bone of contentions.
Sena had threatened to back rebels in Mumbai North East seat if Somaiya is fielded again by the party.
On the other hand, the party has also given ticket to Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav aka ‘Nirahua’ from Azamgarh against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Voting in the Mumbai North East constituency, along with the other 6 parliamentary seats in the region, will take place on April 29 — when the fourth phase of the general elections will be held.
While the Lok Sabha election will be held in seven phases, beginning from April 11, 2019 and the voting in Azamgarh will take place on May 12. The counting will be done on May 23.