Newsmaker | Booked for attack on Somaiya, Vishwanath Mahadeshwar is former principal, ex-mayor and forever Sena

Mahadeshwar, a four-time corporator, was in focus on Sunday when the Thackerays’ bête noire Kirit Somaiya of the BJP reached the Khar police station to meet the Ranas. After Somaiya alleged that the ruling party’s workers pelted stones and footwear at his car while he was leaving, the police arrested Mahadeshwar and seven others on Monday. But he got bail from the station soon after as the police had invoked bailable sections against him.

Mahadeshwar, who recently turned 62 years, is a retired school principal. Believed to be close to Sena leader and state Transport Minister Anil Parab, he has been with the party for more than three decades. He was first elected corporator in 2002 and served as the mayor of Mumbai from 2017 to 2019.

During his mayoral tenure, Mahadeshwar courted controversies. He refused to remove the red beacon from his official car and indulged in verbal spats with, among others, the chief engineer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) stormwater drain department. In August 2019, a video of the then mayor roughing up a woman in Mumbai’s Santacruz East area went viral. He had gone to the area to meet the families of electrocution victims.

That year, Mahadeshwar contested the Assembly elections from the Vandre East constituency that the Sena considers important since “Matoshree” is located in the area. But he lost to the Congress’s Zeeshan Siddiqui after BJP candidate Trupti Sawant received more than 20,000 votes, cutting into the Sena’s support. Trupti had won a by-poll from the seat on a Sena ticket in 2015 after the death of her husband Prakash Sawant, who had won the constituency for the Thackeray-led party in 2009 and 2014.

Sena leaders said Mahadeshwar had been lying low since the election loss but the Somaiya episode has brought him back to the spotlight. Mahadeshwar has complained to the police that the BJP leader’s car attempted to mow down Shiv Sena workers. The police have registered a case against Somaiya’s driver for rash and negligent driving.