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Malik received the NCP’s AB form on Tuesday, allowing him to officially contest elections from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency
Nawab Malik had earlier filed his nomination as an independent candidate. (PTI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the right to oppose me but it was Ajit Pawar who wanted me to contest the Maharashtra election, NCP leader Nawab Malik told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview amid a row over the last-minute decision to give a ticket to the veteran leader which has left ally BJP fuming.
“Ajit Pawar wanted me to contest. I don’t know why BJP is opposing me though there is definitely an ideological difference between me and them. However, I am confident of winning my seat,” Malik said.
Malik received the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction)’s AB form on Tuesday, allowing him to officially contest next month’s Maharashtra assembly election from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency. He will now lock horns with Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi in a highly anticipated electoral battle.
Nawab Malik had earlier filed his nomination as an independent candidate, but following instructions from the NCP, he added the AB form to his candidacy at 2.55 pm and submitted it in just the nick of time before the nomination deadline.
“The people of Shivajinagar support me. I am confident of winning and my daughter will also win. I have fought many elections but the support I am getting this time is much more,” he said.
Malik’s candidature, however, has not gone down well with the BJP, which said the party’s stand was clear about “people connected to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim”.
Malik is an accused in an alleged money laundering case involving mafia don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon.
“BJP’s stand on this issue is very clear. We are of the view that all the partners in Mahayuti have the right to declare their own candidates, whoever they want to, but here the question is about NCP’s authorised candidate Nawab Malik who has been given a ticket. Time and again, we have made our stand clear about Dawood Ibrahim and the people connected with him. This has been already said by Devendra Fadnavis, and now I am also saying the same. So, there is no question of us campaigning for Nawab Malik,” Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar said.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya also objected to Malik’s Candidature and said Shiv Sena’s Suresh Krishna Patil is the ‘official’ candidate of Mahayuti.
The BJP has never been in favour of Malik who was behind bars when the NCP split in July 2023.
Though 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.
In fact, the BJP had opposed Malik as he sat on the treasury benches, with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis writing a letter to Ajit Pawar, asking him to keep Malik out of the Mahayuti alliance.
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.
