Shiv Sena releases first list of 21 candidates for Lok Sabha polls, drops sitting MP who had hit Air India staffer

The Shiv Sena on Friday released its first list of 21 candidates for the Lok Sabha Election 2019. Sitting party MPs Arvind Sawant and Rahul Shewale will contest from South Mumbai and Mumbai South-Central respectively.

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Notably, another sitting MP Ravindra Gaikwad — who had hit an Air India staffer with a slipper at the IGI airport in New Delhi and had openly boasted about it — has been dropped by the party. [caption id=“attachment_6144891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] The party has replaced Gaikwad with Omraje Nimbalkar in the Osmanabad constituency. Shiv Sena also named Hemant Patil as its nominee in the Hingoli seat, dropping Ashok Wankhede, who had lost to Congress candidate Rajeev Satav in 2014. The party has fielded Rajan Vichare from Thane, Shrikant Shinde from Kalyan, Union minister Anant Geete from Raigad, Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Sanjay Mandlik from Kolhapur, Dhairyashil Mane from Hatkanangale, Hemant Godse from Nashik, Sadashiv Lokhande from Shirdi, Shivajirao Adhalrao from Shirur, Chandrakant Khaire from Aurangabad and Shrirang Barne from Maval. As per the seat-sharing pact between BJP and Shiv Sena, the two parties will contest 25 and 23 seats respectively in Maharashtra. The Sena is expected to announce nominees from the remaining two seats — Palghar and Satara — soon. “We will announce the names of remaining candidates by Sunday,” Sena minister Subhash Desai told reporters in Mumbai, while announcing the list. With inputs from PTI