Nawab Malik is contesting as an official candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from the Shivajinagar-Mankhurd assembly constituency. However, he is not the official candidate of the Mahayuti of which the NCP is a part. The other two alliance partners have even opposed Malik and made it clear that they won’t campaign for him. This has raised questions as to why is he contesting from the seat?
Mankhurd-Shivajinagar seat has gone to the Shiv Sena under Cm Eknath Shinde and the party has fielded one Suresh Krishna Patil aka Bullet Patil as its candidate from the seat. Also, traditionally this constituency doesn’t belong to Nawab Malik. He had always been contesting the Kurla constituency. Moreover, the BJP and the Shiv Sena are openly opposing Malik accusing him of having connections with fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim and hence have said that they won’t campaign for him. Malik was jailed over these allegations and that also is the reason why he wasn’t been officially accepted by the NCP under DCM Ajit Pawar even after his release. This raises another question as to why Ajit Pawar, who didn’t dare to accept Malik as a party member went ahead to declare him as an official candidate of the party at the very last moment?
On this backdrop, people have started doubting Malik’s intentions to contest election from this constituency. Whether he will prove to be a vote getter or a vote splitter, is the real question people wasn’t to ask.
Born on June 20, 1959, in Dhuswa village of Uttar Pradesh Nawab Malik moved to Mumbai with his family in the 1970s. His father was involved in the rag business, which Malik later joined before venturing into politics. His political journey began in 1979 when he participated in a city-wide student protest against a fee hike at Mumbai University. Initially he was part of the Congress but later moved to the Samajwadi Party, where he won a by-election and served as a minister in the Congress-NCP alliance government in 1999. In 2004, Malik joined the NCP due to differences with Abu Azmi and was appointed as a Minister of State. Since then, he has held various ministerial positions.
Malik sported several controversies around him and always posed as the savior of minorities. After the arrest of Shahrukh Kahn’s son Aryan, Malik was very critical of the Narcotics Control Bureau and the union government. This was the biggest clash point between him and the BJP. Finally, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in February 2022, in connection with an alleged money laundering case. After securing bail from the SC on health grounds, he is currently out of the jail.
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