Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad chooses railway over air travel for Parliament session in Delhi

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has opted to travel via Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani rather than booking a flight, sources close to the MP told The Times of India.

Pune: Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has opted to travel by Rajdhani Express to reach Delhi for attending Parliament Session rather than an Air India flight, a report said on Monday. 

Jeetendra Shinde, a close aide of the MP, was quoted by The Times of India as saying: "It is confirmed that he took the Rajdhani Express to Delhi. He has already reached the country's capital and had called me to confirm it. The train leaves from Mumbai Central station in Mumbai and stops at Borivali too. I am not sure whether he boarded the train from Mumbai Central or Borivali. He will be staying in Delhi until the Parliament session is over. He might take some days more and then come back".

The Shiv Sena MP had no other option but to catch a train to come to Delhi for Parliamentary sessions due to an air travel ban imposed on him for assaulting a senior staff member of Air India. However, the ban was lifted after the intervention of the Ministry of Civil Aviation last week.

"At that time he already had a confirmed train ticket and hence he traveled by train. This time, there were four to five people traveling with him and hence he chose to take the train again. He isn't trying to avoid flying after whatever happened. Everything related to that incident is over and has been fixed. There is no point discussing it again and again," Shinde told TOI.

The Osmanabad MP was earlier supposed to take the Pune-New Delhi AI-852, which has now made a provision for business class travel on this particular service. Incidentally, on March 23, it was the same flight AI-852 which did not offer business class that day leading to a serious verbal and physical altercation with the airline staffers.

It culminated in the assault of a senior official, two police complaints lodged against him, blacklisting him, slapping a complete flying ban besides ruckus by Shiv Sena in Parliament and a face-off between the two ruling BJP-led NDA constituents.

Last week, after Gaikwad tendered a letter expressing 'regret' over the incident to Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju, AI revoked the flying ban on Saturday, closely followed by Federation of Indian Airlines and other private airlines.