Rivalry between two leaders brewing for years: Who is Mahesh Gaikwad?

The rivalry between Mahesh Gaikwad and Ganpat Gaikwad is not new and had murky past relationship. Tensions had been brewing between the two leaders for several years and they have openly traded accusations against each other on different issues in the past and the political rivalry was well known in the Kalyan town’s political circle.

Mahesh Gaikwad now getting treated Thane’s private hospital after being shot, is considered to be close to CM Shinde’s son Shrikant, who is also the Member of Parliament from the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency, which Kalyan (East) falls under and was reportedly also preparing for the assembly polls, from the Kalyan east constituency from where Ganpat Gaikwad is a sitting MLA from the BJP. Recently, the supporters of Mahesh Gaikwad had installed a banner on his birthday and mentioning him as upcoming MLA from the Kalyan east constituency.
Sources said, the move had irked BJP MLA.

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 last year, the two leaders and their supporters had clashed over a stalled development work in Kalyan (East). The two leaders 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 later also termed Shinde Sena workers and functionaries as goons. Without naming the Shinde Sena, he targeted the party by saying that 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 who was installing cables for a private telecom company and attempting to extort Rs 1 lakh from him. Mahesh had then alleged that it was Ganpat Gaikwad who was instrumental in getting the FIR registered against him by putting a political pressure on the police.

Ganpat Gaikwad however had refuted the allegations level against him stating that Mahesh Gaikwad has several criminal cases registered against him and he was stopping the cable installation work and was trying to extort from the private contractor.