Who is Mahesh Gaikwad? Brewing for years, rivalry boils over

Mahesh Gaikwad, who is considered to be close to CM Shinde’s son Shrikant,is also the Member of Parliament from the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency, which Kalyan (East) falls under. Mahesh was reportedly also preparing for the Assembly polls from the Kalyan (East) constituency, where Ganpat Gaikwad is a sitting MLA from the BJP.

Recently, Mahesh’s supporters put up a banner on his birthday where he was mentioned as being an upcoming MLA from Kalyan (East). Sources said this had irked Ganpat.

Ganpat Gaikwad, a three-time MLA who had joined the BJP in 2019, is considered to be a strong critic of CM Shinde and recently made a statement that the BJP should field it’s own candidate for the Lok Sabha elections from Kalyan instead of giving the seat to Shrikant Shinde during the seat sharing allocation.

In August 2023, the two leaders had clashed over a stalled development work. The two had called on each other for an open debate at the KDMC ward office in Kalyan to discuss who stalled the development work, leading to a face off between them. The police managed to detain Mahesh Gaikwad before he reached the debate, bringing the situation under control.

The issue, however, was not resolved, with the trading of accusations continuing on social media. BJP’s Kalyan district president Nana Suryawanshi had sought CM Eknath Shinde’s intervention to stop Mahesh Gaikwad from making further statements against the MLA.

Last year in September, Gaikwad had again alleged that Shrikant Shinde was suppressing BJP workers and didn’t allow development work to take place in his constituency. He also termed Shinde Sena workers and functionaries as goons. Without naming the Shinde Sena, he targeted the faction by saying even if they have the Dhanushya Baan (bow and arrow party poll symbol of Shiv Sena), then the BJP has a rocket and the party will use it when the time comes.

This had prompted Mahesh Gaikwad to respond. He stated that Ganpat Gaikwad had several criminal cases against him and alleged that instead of following the principle of alliance, Ganpat Gaikwad was disrupting the alliance in Kalyan. In 2019, An FIR was registered by Kolsewadi police in Kalyan against Mahesh Gaikwad for allegedly assaulting a private contractor and attempting to extort Rs 1 lakh from him.