Mumbai: The on-board quarrel with an Air India staffer in March 2017 over seating arrangements seems to have cost the sitting Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP from Osmanabad, Ravindra Gaikwad, his parliamentary seat. The Sena has denied him a ticket for the forthcoming general election. Gaikwad has been replaced by Omraje Nimbalkar.
However, the party seemed more merciful to Rajan Vichare, the MP from Thane who had tried to force-feed a Muslim youth at Maharashtra Sadan during Ramzan. Vichare got a ticket. ,MP Ravindra Gaikwad, 59, had hit an Air India staffer with a slipper at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi and then openly boasted about it. He had to briefly face a travel ban from airlines for his act.
Vichare, who was accused of force-feeding a canteen employee observing roza at Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi in 2014, has been fielded again from Thane. Months after his election in 2014, Vichare had courted controversy with his action.
The Sena had defended Vichare and his associates involved in the incident, saying they did not know the canteen employee was a Muslim and was observing the Ramzan fast. The party had clarified Vichare and others were irked by the poor quality of food being served in the canteen.
