Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad
Credit: X/@sanjaygaikwad34
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad, who has kicked up a row for assaulting an MLA hostel canteen worker, on Friday issued a threat to AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel, saying he would thrash the latter badly.
His remarks come after Jaleel criticised Gaikwad for attacking the canteen staffer.
Jaleel also hit back at Gaikwad, saying he accepted the Sena MLA's challenge, and asked him to specify the place and time for their confrontation.
Gaikwad, who represents the Buldhana assembly constituency, is in the eye of a storm for slapping and punching the canteen staffer for serving him "stale food".
The legislator had ordered dinner from the Akashwani MLA hostel canteen in south Mumbai on Tuesday night and found the dal and rice delivered to his room to be stale and foul-smelling.
Angered by this, he stormed into the canteen to confront the manager. He then forced a canteen worker to smell a packet of dal before slapping and punching him.
A video of the episode went viral, drawing widespread condemnation from the opposition as well as the government.
Former MP Jaleel of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) criticised Gaikwad, saying beating a poor person in such a way was not good.
When asked about Jaleel's remark, Gaikwad told reporters, "If this is so, then Jaleel bhai, you should take the contract of running that hotel (MLA hostel canteen) and then feed that kind of food. I thrashed that man (canteen worker) by punching him twice. But I will beat Imtiaz Jaleel so badly that he will not be in a position to run a hotel."
Reacting to Gaikwad's remark, the former AIMIM MP from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar said, "I am in no mood to run a hotel. But if a poor man is working as a waiter and an MLA of the ruling party is beating him just because he did not get the right kind of food...Do they not know that rules are framed in the assembly (legislature)? Had Gaikwad been a bit educated, he would have written a letter to the (assembly) speaker (over the issue of food)." "If the speaker takes him seriously, he would have acted on the demand," he added.
"Gaikwad has a history of fighting. If he is threatening me, then let me know that time and place. He doesn't need to make an effort, I will reach that place...I have nothing to do with Sanjay Gaikwad, but if you are doing wrong...then I will stand with the poor person," the AIMIM's state president said.