Mumbai, Feb 9 (IANS): BMC's local politics coupled with certain personal issues brewed up enmity between Shiv Sena-UBT leader Abhishek V. Ghosalkar and the local goon-cum-wannabe leader Mauris Noronha, known as 'Mauris Bhai' in Borivali west.

A self-proclaimed businessman-cum-philanthropist, Mauris, 52, harboured strong political ambitions and wanted to contest the BMC elections from the Dahisar area – a stronghold of the Ghosalkar family for decades.

The BMC elections are most likely to be held this year with the poll season slated to heat up with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Abhishek Ghosalkar was elected twice from the BMC Ward and later his wife Tejasvee, an IT professional, was also elected, and it falls in the Dahisar assembly constituency which had earlier elected his father Vinod Ramchandra Ghosalkar (2009-2014), also a BMC corporator from the region.

The Ghosalkars have enjoyed immense popularity in the region for their public and social services, plus easy accessibility to the commoners and respect in the party and political circles.

Mauris was keen to get a foothold in this Ghosalkar stronghold and came in frequent frictions with them, especially Abhishek, which culminated in the latter’s killing, barely days ahead of his 11th wedding anniversary on February 14 (next Wednesday).

Eying the BMC elections, Mauris had started an early campaign by launching aid and relief programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic, distributing lakhs of rupees among the poor and downtrodden in the region.

He has been seen hobnobbing with leading politicians including ex-Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis' wife Amruta, BJP MP Gopal Shetty and many others as he sought to scale up his political profile and connections.

Some three years ago, Mauris and Abhishek clashed on some minor issues, which snowballed into several other problems as both attempted to safeguard their local domains.

Mauris was reportedly an expert poker player who travelled to top casinos worldwide but in 2022, he got entangled in serious legal issues related to a 10-year old case, and was out on bail.

The Mumbai Police had issued a Look Out Circular against him, and booked him various charges including rape, blackmail, extortion and threats to a middle-aged woman, and he suspected Ghosalkar as repsonsible for his legal woes.

Finally, around November-December 2023, the duo were apparently seen patching up in public, and the February 8 event and Facebook live was a part of that reconciliation process. However, locals say Ghosalkar never expected it to be a trick to lure him to Mauris' office where he was shot dead on Thursday night.