Sena releases first list, drops MP who slapped airline staffer

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena, which will contest 23 of Maharashtra’s 48 seats in the April-may general elections, announced its first list of 21 candidates on Friday.

Seventeen of the candidates are sitting members of Parliament (MPS). Only Osmanabad MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who slapped an airline staffer in 2017 after an argument over an economy class seat, was not re-nominated.

The party is expected to announce candidates for the two remaining seats — Palghar and Satara — on Sunday.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena has tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which will contest 25 seats in the state.

In Mumbai, the Sena fielded three sitting MPS— Arvind Sawant (Mumbai south), Rahul Shewale (Mumbai south-central) and Gajanan Kirtikar (Mumbai north-west). Sawant will take on Milind Deora of the Congress while Shewale will fight Eknath Gaikwad, also from the Congress.

Sena leader and Union minister Anant Geete will contest from Raigad. Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-sindhudurg will take on Congress’s Navinchandra Bandivadekar.

The Sena is contesting four of the eight seats in Marathwada. Its candidates are Chandrakant Khaire (Aurangabad), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), and Hemant Patil (sitting Sena MLA from Nanded who has been given a ticket from Hingoli). Omraje Nimbalkar has replaced Gaikwad in Osmanabad.