Maharashtra: BJP May Shuffle Cards In Mumbai During LS Polls

Mumbai: The BJP may change candidates in Mumbai and also might contest more seats in the city in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

According to insiders, the party might be thinking of fielding strong Maratha leaders like Ashish Shelar or Vinod Tawde from the city to send out positive signal to the Marathi speaking voters of the city.

'Shat Pratishat Bhajapa'

Tawde had given the slogan of "Shat Pratishat BhaJapa" for the first time, in order to mobilise the city party cadres, while he was the city party president. It was during Shelar's tenure as the city chief that the party had dared to contest independently and won almost same number of seats as that of the Shiv Sena.

The party cadres are also expecting addition of at least one more seat to the party's kitty in the city in 2024 LS elections, since Arvind Sawant, the sitting MP from South Mumbai, has not switched loyalty to CM Eknath Shinde as yet and BJP might stake claim for the seat.

Possible return of Kirit Somaiya?

The BJP also might repeat its 2014 MP from Mumbai North East, Kirit Somaiya, since he was denied ticket in 2019 just to keep ally Shiv Sena happy. Somaiya had attracted ire of Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray by blaming the family in various scams in the BMC like stormwater drainage cleaning and solid waste management etc. Since the party now wants its cadres to take on the Shiv Sena (UBT) the party might bring back Somaiya to the seat, party sources said.