The Shiv Sena has sidelined four-time MLA Gajanan Kirtikar and instead fielded his one-time protégé Sunil Prabhu from Dindoshi.

Kirtikar called the move a “conspiracy by a gang of Sena leaders”. He has decided not to back Prabhu and will move away from Mumbai. “I feel insulted,” said Kirtikar. “Prabhu does not want me in his campaign, so I will move to Solapur and Vidarbha and campaign for the party there.”

Prabhu could not be contacted for comment. Leader of the House in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, he was Kirtikar’s personal assistant from 1992 to 1997 and had been given a ticket to the BMC elections on his insistence. “Prabhu was given a ticket purposely. The lobby of Ravindra Waikar, Subhash Desai and Prabhu was at work to end my political career,” Kirtikar said.

The Sena leadership says it wants to give youth a chance and has already given Kirtikar enough chances including a Lok Sabha ticket. Kirtikar countered that Desai too is an old face and so is Vinod Ghoshalkar, the Dahisar candidate.

He claimed having received invitations from the MNS and the Congress, “but I am a hardcore Sainik and will not join any other party, nor will I contest independently”.

Dindoshi, crafted after delimitation from the erstwhile Malad constituency, will see a fight between the Sena, the Congress and the MNS. Kirtikar said he had a strong base after a career of 20 years in Jogeshwari, Goregaon and Malad and because of his mass followers through the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti that he founded.

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