Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad defended his action of slapping a government canteen staff member, stating he had "no regret" for the assault and would "repeat it" if needed. The Buldhana legislator alleged that the food served at the MLA hostel in Mumbai was of extremely poor quality and accused the canteen of repeatedly ignoring his complaints.

"I don't have any regret over what I did. I am a public representative. If they dont understand after so many complaints i will teach them my way,” Gaikwad told reporters.

“When someone fails to understand democratic language then I have to this language only. I didn't thrash him seeing whether he is Marathi or Hindi-speaking. I had complained to concerned authorities on several occasions. I will repeat it...,” he added.

The incident took place at the Akashvani MLA Hostel in Mumbai, where Gaikwad had ordered dinner from the canteen. Upon receiving dal and rice in his room, he allegedly found the food to be stale and foul-smelling.

According to eyewitnesses and sources, Gaikwad stormed into the canteen area in anger, confronted the staff, refused to pay the bill, and slapped the man at the billing counter. A video capturing the incident has since gone viral on social media, drawing widespread criticism.

Gaikwad, a member of the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, later told PTI that the food was "absolutely rotten" and that he had raised concerns about its quality on multiple occasions before. He also said he plans to raise the issue during the ongoing session of the Maharashtra legislature.

“People from all across the state come here, workers, officials, everyone comes here to have food. The quality of food should be good here as it is a government canteen,” he said.

This is not the first time Gaikwad has stirred controversy. In September last year, he made headlines for announcing a reward of ₹11 lakh to anyone who would "chop off" Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s tongue over remarks made about scrapping the reservation system. A case was later registered against him by Buldhana police.