BJP leader Kirit Somaiya became the party's only sitting member of Parliament from Mumbai, to lose his seat to a colleague, Manoj Kotak. BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena, had raised strong opposition to Somaiya after he had sharply criticised 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 strong Gujarati support base. Somaiya said that he was very happy that Kotak has got the ticket. "We will all support him and ensure that he wins. Ultimately our aim is a second term for Modi ji. Responsibilities within the party keep shifting, nothing new in it," he said.