Amidst heightened political activity surrounding the Lok Sabha elections, sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh from Bhiwandi East tendered his resignation on Saturday, April 20, 2024. Shaikh submitted his resignation from the MLA post to Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra state president Abu Asim Azmi. The reason for his resignation remains unclear.
Rais Shaikh has served as a corporator and group leader of the Samajwadi Party. He contested and won the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections from Govandi in 2012 and Nagpada in 2017.
The Bhiwandi Lok Sabha constituency is one of Maharashtra's 48 parliamentary constituencies. Situated within Thane district, it is a general category parliamentary seat comprising six assembly constituencies: Bhiwandi Rural (ST), Shahpur (ST), Bhiwandi West, Bhiwandi East, Kalyan West, and Murbad. The incumbent MP for Bhiwandi Lok Sabha constituency is Kapil Patil from the BJP. In the 2019 election, BJP's Kapil Patil retained the seat by receiving 523,583 votes, while Congress' Suresh Taware came second with 367,254 votes.