Maharashtra election: Nawab Malik enters poll fray despite BJP opposition

Nawab Malik is a five-time MLA and was considered close to Sharad Pawar.

Former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday filed two nomination forms for Mumbai's Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly seat.  He submitted two affidavits — one as an independent and the other as an NCP (Ajit Pawar) candidate.

Later in the day, however, Malik said he is NCP's official candidate. "Today, I filed a nomination from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Vidhan Sabha constituency as NCP candidate. I filed the form as an independent candidate too. But the party has sent the AB form, and we submitted it at 2.55 pm. Now I am an official candidate for NCP," he said.

Malik will be up against Suresh Patil from NCP ally Shiv Sena, led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar seat has been a stronghold of Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi, who has been winning it since 2009.

Nawab Malik faces resistance within the Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar).

Why was BJP against fielding Malik?

BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Tuesday said his party is against the candidature of Malik for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly election.

“We will not accept giving a ticket to someone linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim,” Shelar, Mumbai BJP president, told a news channel. “We won’t support Malik and will have a different stand,” he said.

He was responding to media reports that Malik may contest from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar and leave the Anushakti Nagar constituency to his daughter Sana, who plans to make her debut in electoral politics.

Malik was a minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and was arrested in 2022 in a case first registered by the NIA against Dawood and his associates including Chhota Shakeel and Tigar Memon.

Malik was granted bail on medical grounds in July this year. After the NCP split, the faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar took the MLA into its fold, despite objections from ally BJP.