Mumbai: BJP prominent leader Kirit Somaiya dropped from North East seat; corporator Manoj Kotak replaces him

Mumbai: BJP prominent leader Kirit Somaiya dropped from North East seat; corporator Manoj Kotak replaces him

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 12:18 AM IST
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Prominent Mumbai BJP leader Kirit Somaiya was dropped on Wednesday from North East constituency. Somaiya who is a sitting MP from Mumbai North East constituency had some issues with BJP’s ally party Shiv Sena in the past. However, the leader has been replaced and now BJP has fielded Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Manoj Kotak.

Kotak, who is the group leader of the BJP in the civic body, would take on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate and former MP Sanjay Dina Patil, who had lost to Somaiya in the 2014 elections.

Somaiya is the only BJP MP to be dropped by the party which is contesting three out of total six seats spanning the island city and suburbs in Mumbai. The Sena is contesting on rest three constituencies as per a seat-sharing deal between the two parties.

  Kotak’s candidature came as a blow to Somaiya who has already started preparations for contesting the seat. Sena leaders are staunchly against Somaiya’s renomination for his caustic remarks directed at the party brass.

“Somaiya has not maintained any ties with the people of his constituency. We see Matoshree (Thackeray’s residence) as a temple. But if he makes allegations against it and calls (Thackeray) a mafia don, no one should even try to give him a ticket,” Shiv Sena lawmaker Sunil Raut once said.

The rivalry between Somaiya and Sena began after 2014 election when the ally criticised the ruling party on a host of issues. In 2016, the BJP leader responded to Thackeray’s dare to PM Modi to conduct “surgical strikes” on Swiss banks to bring back black money. He said Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uddhav Thackeray should clarify if they were worried about poor people or those with “boxes of money”.

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