Nawab Malik To Contest As Independent Candidate If He Doesn’t Get Ajit Pawar’s NCP’s AB Form

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik filed his nomination papers on Tuesday from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency in Mumbai. 

Interestingly, Malik will be contesting for the upcoming polls as an independent candidate as well as the candidate from the NCP ( Ajit Pawar faction).

BJP leader Ashish Shelar said his party was against the candidature of NCP leader Nawab Malik for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly election. 

“We will not accept giving a ticket to someone linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim,” said Shelar, Mumbai BJP president. 

“We won’t support Malik and will have a different stand,” he added. 

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 Tiger 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. (with PTI inputs)