New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday dropped incumbent Lok Sabha MP Poonam Mahajan as its candidate from the Mumbai North Central seat and named 26/11 terror attack prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam in her place. Nikam is a well-known name in the legal circles.
BJP dropped two-time MP Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late BJP veteran Pramod Mahajan. Party leaders have claimed that the decision to drop her was based on organisational feedback. Though indications had been there for some time that Mahajan would be dropped, it was the party's search for her replacement that took time, PTI reported, quoting sources.
In 2014, Poonam had defeated incumbent MP Priya Dutt, daughter of late actor and Congress leader Sunil Dutt. She was re-elected from the seat in 2019. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats.
The Congress has fielded its city unit chief and Dharavi MLA Varsha Gaikwad from Mumbai North Central. Voting in Mumbai is scheduled to be held on May 20 in the fifth phase of the polls. The BJP also named eight more candidates for the Odisha assembly polls, which will be held alongside the general elections.
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