Gaikwad, who represents the Kalyan East assembly constituency, was arrested in February for allegedly opening fire on a Shiv Sena functionary inside a police station at Ulhasnagar in Thane district over a land dispute.The Congress said since Gaikwad is in judicial custody, he cannot vote under Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said allowing the BJP lawmaker to vote in the council polls would amount to misuse of power.”Gaikwad can come out from jail to vote, but Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik were also in jail (during the 2022 council polls) and were not allowed to vote. This is use or misuse of power,” he said.The BJP is the largest party in the assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena (38), NCP (42), Congress (37), Shiv Sena (UBT) 15 and NCP (SP) 10.The BJP has fielded five candidates and its ally Shiv Sena two.Their Mahayuti partner NCP has nominated two candidates.From the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bloc, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress have fielded one candidate each, while the NCP (SP) is backing the PWP nominee Jayant Patil.The MVA does not have numbers on its side to get the third candidate elected, but it is banking on some MLAs of the NCP and the Shiv Sena to cross-vote in their favour.Over the last few days, the NCP (SP) has claimed that some MLAs of the rival camp led by Ajit Pawar are in touch with the opposition party for a possible return after MVA’s impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls.
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