Mumbai: In a potential source of conflict within the ruling Mahayuti, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded Nawab Malik from Mumbai’s Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency, despite the BJP having voiced its strong exception to his candidature.
Malik filed his nomination as the official candidate of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP Tuesday. The party has nominated his daughter Sana Malik from her father’s current constituency, Anushaktinagar.
The Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency has been represented by Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi for three consecutive terms. This time too, Azmi has put his hat in the ring for a fourth term.
With the BJP strongly opposed to Malik’s candidature, Malik had decided to contest as an Independent had he not received his party’s official nomination.
Speaking to ThePrint, Malik said, “I was told to contest by my party. I had filed my nomination form as an NCP candidate as well as an Independent. I got the AB form today before 3 pm, which made me the party’s official candidate for the seat,” he said.
He, however, said neither he nor his daughter are the Mahayuti’s official candidates as the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded candidates against them on both seats.
A source from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena confirmed the party’s decision to field a candidate, Avinash Rane, against Sana Malik, but did not comment on whether the party has given an AB form to any candidate in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar.
The Mahayuti alliance comprises the BJP, Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Madhav Bhandari, vice-president of the Maharashtra BJP, told ThePrint, “When it comes to Nawab Malik, the party has clarified its stance time and again. Our stand has been unambiguous. Beyond that, if Ajit dada wants to field him as his party’s official candidate, then our leadership will comment on it.”
BJP’s opposition to Nawab Malik
The BJP has always been against including Nawab Malik as a leader of the Mahayuti alliance.
When the NCP split in July 2023, Malik was behind bars, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. While most MLAs picked sides almost immediately after the split, Malik’s decision remained a suspense till he attended a state assembly session after being released on bail in December 2023.
As he entered the state assembly, he sat on the treasury benches, irking the BJP, and prompting Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to shoot a letter to his fellow deputy CM Ajit Pawar asking him to keep Malik out of the Mahayuti alliance.
The ED arrested Malik in February 2022 in connection with its money laundering probe into the alleged hawala network of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aides for promoting anti-national activities in India and spreading terrorism. The ED accused Malik of having financial links with Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar, owning properties linked to the gangster and facilitating a money laundering racket.
It was Fadnavis who had first alleged that Malik had links with Dawood Ibrahim.
In his letter to Ajit Pawar in December 2023, Fadnavis had said that power comes and goes, but the nation is more important and the Ajit Pawar-led party should not include someone who is associated with Dawood Ibrahim in the alliance considering Malik is only out on medical bail and the allegations against him have not been disproved.
A source close to Malik said he decided to align himself with Ajit Pawar simply because the leader had done a lot to help him when he was facing the ED probe. The source also said that Malik does not intend to campaign as a Mahayuti candidate, using the names and symbols of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s allies.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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