Slapping around an Air India staffer has certainly increased the number of selfie requests for Shiv Sena’s Osmanabad MP Ravindra Gaikwad. The MP now has a doppelganger who tags along specifically to trip up selfie maniacs and hounding reporters.
According to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, correspondents from the newspaper met Gaikwad when he was about to board a train to Latur. Dressed in a T-shirt and denims, Gaikwad directed the reporter to Ratnakant Sagar, his lookalike, saying “That’s my boss, Ravisaheb Gaikwad.”
Gaikwad later revealed to the paper that after the Air India incident and a ‘media trial’ he was being mobbed by selfie-seekers. It started taking a lot of his time, says Gaikwad, and he picked up party worker Sagar to pose as him.
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When the MP is not in Parliament, Sagar dons kurta-pyjama while Gaikwad jumps into the comfort of baggy jeans and a T-shirt. Gaikwad told the newspaper that the ploy had worked and that even people from his own town wouldn’t associate him with casual clothes.
Gaikwad first flew into the headlines on the back of claiming to have rained chappal-blows on an elderly Air India official in March. It reportedly happened since he was refused business-class but the MP now tells the newspaper that he went after the Air India employee after he threatened to report Gaikwad’s behaviour to the Prime Minister. Gaikwad’s brazen behaviour set off a debate about the VIP-culture in the country and Parliament also took up the matter.
