Maharashtra polls: BJP not to campaign for ally NCP's Nawab Malik

Mumbai: The BJP has made it clear that it will not campaign for ally NCP's candidate Nawab Malik in the assembly polls due to his alleged links with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, but has no objection to his daughter's candidature.

Nawab Malik, a former state minister, on Tuesday filed his nomination from the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar assembly constituency in Mumbai as a candidate of the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), while the party also gave ticket to his younger daughter, Sana Malik, from the Anushakti Nagar constituency, a seat that her father represented multiple times in the past.

This is Sana Malik's maiden assembly election.

The Ajit Pawar-led party gave the nomination form to Nawab Malik just minutes before the deadline for the process ended, allowing him to officially contest elections as a party candidate.

The NCP is contesting the November 20 assembly elections as part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, which also has the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena as its constituents.

BJP's Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar on Tuesday evening released a video message making the party's stand clear that it will not campaign for Nawab Malik.

Malik, who was a minister in the cabinet led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, had targeted the Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, following the arrest of Aryan Khan, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son, over alleged possession of drugs on board a cruise ship.

The anti-drug agency later dropped drug charges against Aryan Khan and five others due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Malik was arrested in 2022 in a case first registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Dawood and his associates including Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon. Malik was granted bail on medical grounds in July this year.

After the NCP split in July last year, the faction led by Ajit Pawar took the MLA into its fold, despite objections from ally BJP.

In his video message, Shelar said, "BJP has been clear on this stance right from the beginning. All the Mahayuti constituents were allowed to decide their respective candidates. The concern was only regarding Nawab Malik's nomination by NCP." "Both, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and I had repeatedly made clear BJP's stance in this regard. I am saying it once again, BJP will not campaign for Nawab Malik. Our opinion about Dawood and all those associated with him and his case is absolutely clear," he said.

When asked about Sana Malik's candidature from the Anushakti Nagar seat, the BJP leader said, "Until no evidence or information in this regard emerges, BJP will consider Mahayuti's candidate as theirs and there will be no questions about it." Congress leader Sachin Sawant, however, criticised the BJP, saying its stand shows the "hypocrisy and double standards" of the party.

When asked about the BJP's position, senior NCP leader and former Union minister Praful Patel said, "Nawab Malik has been our leader for a long time. Nothing new has happened by making him the party candidate for the assembly polls. All the NDA constituents will discuss the issue and do whatever is needed to retain our government in power."