BJP leader Kirit Somaiya became the party's only sitting Member of Parliament from Mumbai to lose his seat to colleague Manoj Kotak. BJP's ally the Shiv Sena had raised strong opposition to Somaiya after he had sharply criticized Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray during the 2017 civic elections.

The party has, in its sixteenth list of six candidates released on Wednesday, fielded Manoj Kotak who has been aggressively taking up local issues and has a string Gujarati support base. Somaiya's first reaction was that he was very happy that Kotak ji has got the ticket. "We all will support him and ensure he wins. Ultimately our aim is a second term for Modi ji. Responsibilities within party keep shifting, nothing new in it," he said.