In Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri Lok Sabha seat, Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Vinayak Raut Aims To Win Third Time (image-facebook/Vinayak Raut)

Vinayak Raut is fielded as the Shiv Sena candidate from Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri constituency. Vinayak Raut will face BJP-nominated Union minister Narayan Rane in the upcoming election. Maharashtra has a total of 48 Lok Sabha seats and it will be voting in the first five phases. 

Vinayak Raut is the current sitting MP from Ratnagiri. Raut who originally hails from Mumbai, was previously elected as the member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Vile Parle of Mumbai for 1999-2004 as a Shiv Sena candidate. He has also served as the member of Maharashtra Legislative Council from the Shiv Sena Party in 2012. Later in 2014, Vinayak resigned from the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Ever since 2014, Raut was elected as the MP for the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency. 

Ratnagiri- Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency was created on 19th February as a part of the implementation of the Presidential notification based on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission of India. The first election was held in 2009. 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, in Shiv Sena ticket, Vinayak Raut won the seat by securing 4,58,022 votes. In 2019, undivided Shiv Sena candidate Vinayak Raut and Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha candidate and the son of senior Rane, Nilesh Rane, contested the Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri Lok Sabha seat.

In the 2014 election, Vinayak Raut won by 4,93,088 votes. In 2009, Nilesh Rane won the seat as the Congress candidate against former Union minister Suresh Prabhu of the Shiv Sena, handing a major blow to the Thackeray-led party.

The Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri Lok Sabha comprises six Assembly seats — two seats are held by the Shiv Sena (UBT), two by the Shinde Sena, and one seat each by the BJP and NCP.