Fifteen year feud behind shooting of Sena leader Mahesh Gaikwad

Questions are being raised as to why BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad and Mahesh Gaikwadmdashcity president of the Shiv Sena Eknath Shinde factionmdashwere left together at the police station despite it being known that they had a bitter rivalry right from 20062007 when they were both cable network operators in the area ldquoThe fight between them began after a raid was carried out against Maheshrsquos cable business He believed Ganpat was responsible for itrdquo said a source close to the family The family source added ldquoLater action was initiated against his dhaba named after actor Mithun Chakraborty and Mahesh believed Ganpat was also responsible for this as well They have been rivals sincerdquoSocial media posts following the incident on Friday PicsNavneet BharateGanpat and Maheshmdashformer corporator of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporationmdashare from the same village and are also related Ganpat was elected as an Independent MLA in 2009 Later he joined the NCP which was in power then In 2014 he contested as an Independent candidate and then joined the BJP In 2019 Ganpat contested on a BJP ticket when Shiv Sena and BJP had an alliance ldquoDhananjay Borademdashan independent candidatemdashwas brought in to fight against Ganpat and it is said that he was supported by MP Shrikant Shinde and Mahesh along with other corporators and the sarpanch However Ganpat won the election and it resulted in political rivalryrdquo said the sourceIn 2022 after Eknath Shinde became the chief minister Mahesh became close to his son Shrikant and was the first person from Kalyan to support the Shinde faction ldquoSeeing the support Mahesh Gaikwad was given the position of Kalyan East City President of the Shiv Sena Shinde faction Soon after he started getting involved in every work Ganpat had undertakenrdquo the source said adding that Mahesh was also assured a ticket against GanpatldquoMahesh was working hard opposing and interfering in every work There were verbal arguments and the two accused each other of corruptionhellip sometimes at public events and sometimes on social mediahellip taking credit for the developmental work in the city A few months ago they challenged each other to take the issue to the streets but due to timely police intervention a conflict was avertedrdquo he addedA police officer who was at Kolshewadi said ldquoThey have come to the police station many times due to some issue as both live in Kolshewadi police station jurisdiction But we usually call them separately to avoid any ruckus at the police station as both have a huge group of supporters who follow them and could fight with each otherrdquo a police officer said adding that they would usually leave after filing a noncognisable offence or threatening to file a caseMeanwhile a local from Kalyan questioned as to why the senior police inspector of Hill Line police station made them sit together for 1015 minutes ldquoWhen both of them have past rivalry and were aggressive then why precautionary measures or extra force was not deployed or asked for There was negligence on the part of the police toordquoOn Friday Mahesh and Ganpat came facetoface at the police station due to a land dispute in Dwarli Ganpat fired six rounds at Mahesh Following the incident the police have beefed up security in Ulhasnagar and Kalyan East Teams of armed police personnel and the State Reserve Police Force have been deployed There is also a large police presence outside the residence and office of Ganpat The police have also increased patrollingAdditional Commissioner of Police Dattatray Shinde has appealed to citizens to maintain peace The Thane crime branch has formed different teams for the investigation and to search for the wanted accused including Ganpatrsquos son Vaibhav Meanwhile Ganpatrsquos licensed firearm has been sent for forensic analysisA reel war thisAfter the firing incident supporters of both Gaikwads started a lsquoreelrsquo war on social media posting their pictures and clips with messages like lsquotiger is backrsquo and lsquotiger abhi zinda hairsquo with Bollywood songs playing along2007Year rivalry began