The Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Assembly witnessed ugly scenes after the supporters of a BJP MLA and NCP (Shandrachandra Pawar) legislator clashed.
The incident, sources said, was triggered when BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar’s vehicle allegedly came to a halt where NCP(SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad was standing, leading to a heated verbal exchange between the two leaders.
Videos of the incident that surfaced on social media on Friday purportedly show Awhad referring to Padalkar as a “mangalsutra thief”, in an apparent reference to a past video that showed the BJP MLA being involved in a commotion at a wedding. Though Padalkar reacted strongly to Awhad, the matter seemed to have been resolved.
However, soon afterwards, the tensions continued after supporters of the two leaders exchanged blows on the Assembly premises, forcing Speaker Rahul Narwekar to intervene and temporarily suspend visitors from entering the premises. He also referred the matter to the Privileges Committee.
Though the leaders expressed regret on the floor of the House, the incident put the spotlight on the long-simmering rivalry between the two who represent vastly different constituencies, ideologies, and political styles.
Though both leaders hail from the OBC communities, they represent different wings of Maharashtra politics. Padalkar is the BJP’s rural spearhead against the old Maratha establishment, while Awhad is the urban secularist from the Pawar school of politics. One relies on street mobilisation and caste pride, the other on ideological confrontation and community outreach.
Padalkar, BJP’s Dhangar voice
A first-time MLA from the Jat Assembly seat in Sangli district, 43-year-old Padalkar is one of the most vocal representatives of the Dhangar (shepherd) community.
Born into an OBC Dhangar family with modest means, Padalkar began his political career with the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), a party with a strong influence among the Dhangar community that has been pushing for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Padalkar’s political journey has been chequered. While he served as a BJP-nominated MLC from 2020 to 2024, he lost several Assembly polls before eventually emerging victorious from the Jat Assembly seat in last year’s elections.
Known for his rustic oratory and flair for dramatic speeches, Padalkar briefly aligned with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in 2019 before returning to the BJP the same year. There, he emerged as a combative OBC voice to take on the Maratha-dominated NCP and Pawar.
Over the years, Padalkar has cultivated a strong rural OBC voter base and has emerged as one of the staunchest critics of NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar and in 2020, infamously referred to him as “virus” while opposing his presence at public events related to the Dhangar community.
Outside politics, Padalkar produced and starred in a Marathi film, Dhumas (2019), which seemingly added to his popular image in rural Maharashtra.
Awhad, the “secular crusader”
A four-time MLA from the Mumbra-Kalwa seat in Thane, 61-year-old Awhad began his political career as a student activist in the 1980s and was a prominent voice in the anti-fee hike agitations.
He steadily rose through the ranks of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the Congress’s student body, and served as an MLC between 2002 and 2008. Awhad made his successful electoral debut in 2009 from the Mumbra-Kalwa Assembly seat and has retained the seat since then.
He was a minister in the Congress-undivided NCP as well as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) governments, where he held key portfolios like Housing, Medical Education, Minority Development and Aukaf.
A PhD in socio-religious movements, Awhad is from the OBC Vanjari community and is known for his articulate, ideological approach and staunch opposition to right-wing politics. In 2018, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) uncovered an alleged plot by extremists to target him, a claim he used to shore up his political positioning.
Awhad’s combative personality has often landed him in soup. In 2020, he was booked for assaulting a civil engineer in Thane over a morphed meme. Two years later, a complaint was registered against the MLA after he protested against the Marathi film Har Har Mahadev and assaulted a man at a multiplex in Thane, alleging it distorted Maratha history.
In the Assembly, Awhad is known for his sharp interventions and sarcastic wit, which he often uses to target BJP leaders.
Last week, Awhad landed in a row after he was seen assaulting a TV journalist inside the Assembly premises. “Video footage of this incident clearly shows Awhad physically assaulted the reporter, who was recording his interaction with Shiv Sena (UBT) Leader Ambadas Danve. Such behaviour by an elected representative is absolutely unacceptable and raises serious concerns about the safety and security of journalists covering the Assembly session,” the Mumbai Press Club said in a statement following the incident.
Despite the controversies, he continues to remain a trusted lieutenant of Pawar and one of the party’s most visible urban leaders. He was recently appointed as spokesperson of the NCP (SP) and has also served as the party’s floor leader in the Assembly.
Though Padalkar (left) and Awhad (right) expressed regret on the floor of the House, the incident put the spotlight on the long-simmering rivalry between the two. (Credit: X/@GopichandP_MLA, X/@Awhadspeaks) 
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