2 weeks Ago By TOI News Desk
NEW DELHI: National Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar finally broke silence on Nawab Malik's candidature in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections despite constant backlash from Mahayuti allies and defended him in row over link with terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. Pawar confirmed that he will campaign for Malik in Mankhurd Shivajinagar. "We have given him candidature so we will have to go for his campaign," Ajit Pawar told ANI.
On Malik's alleged links with Dawood Ibrahim, Ajit Pawar said, "No allegations against him have been proven till now so how can he be declared a convict?" Ajit Pawar's support comes even as ruling Mahayuti alliance parties, Eknath Sinde's Shiv Sena and BJP have refused to support and campaign for Malik. A day earlier, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis made it clear that the BJP would back the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena's candidate rather than NCP's Nawab Malik in Mankhurd Shivajinagar constituency in the upcoming state assembly elections. Mankhurd assembly will see a four-way contest with NCP's Nawab Malik, Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi, Shinde Sena's Suresh Patil and AIMIM's Ateeque Ahmad Khan in the Muslim majority area.
Meanwhile, Malik had said he was solely a candidate of Ajit Pawar's party and the Mahayuti alliance was against him. "I am the candidate of Nationalist Congress Party, I am with Ajit Pawar, he has made me a candidate, now Mahayuti alliance people, whether from Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, they are fighting the elections against me and my fight is with them," he had said. Malik has also said that he will take legal route against "false allegations" linking him with Dawood.
Nawab Malik served as a minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration before his arrest in 2022. The National Investigation Agency had initially filed a case against Dawood Ibrahim and his associates, including Chhota Shakeel and Tigar Memon. The authorities accused Malik of illegally acquiring property in Kurla in collaboration with Dawood Ibrahim's sister.
He received medical bail in July this year. The former two-term MLA from Anushakti Nagar had declared his intention to contest as an Independent candidate from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency after the NCP, under BJP influence, declined to give him a ticket. The NCP remained non-committal about Malik's candidature until the final day for submitting nominations.
Malik finally submitted two nomination papers, one as Independent and one as NCP candidate, which was accepted..
