MVA launches attack on Malik, Sule ‘feels sorry’ for him

In Mumbai, the fight for the Anushakti Nagar assembly constituency will be crucial. After Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Nawab Malik clarified that he had decided to stay with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, the Opposition-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) launched a veiled attack on him on Friday. The MVA held a joint meeting at Anushakti Nagar, where NCP (SP) working President Supriya Sule said that she “felt sorry” for Malik for choosing those who had joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), “which had put him behind bars”.

“If there was one person who spoke about the drug problem in this state, it was Nawab Bhai (Malik). What did they do to him? They put him in jail,” Sule said, attacking the BJP-led central government amid applause from the crowd. Sule then expressed her disappointment at Malik’s recent switch to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, which has allied with the BJP and Shiv Sena.

“I feel sorry when I see Nawab Bhai in the BJP camp. The same party that put you in jail, you have joined forces with them,” she said, targeting the NCP MLA. She reminded him that it was they (the NCP-SP) who had supported him in difficult times when he was in jail. “When Nawab Bhai was in jail, when he had to go to court, when he was in hospital, who was standing by his side,” she asked.

Sule recalled the emotional ordeal faced by Malik’s family. “I have seen the tears of Nawab Bhai’s wife and his children. He may have forgotten the injustice against him caused by the BJP, but I have not forgotten,” she pointed out.

The MP from Baramati was referring to Malik’s arrest in a money laundering case in February 2022. He was released on medical grounds in August last year, after spending a year and a half in prison. Since then, Malik has been out on bail. Then, in December 2023, he switched from the NCP-SP to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Recently, he made it clear that he would be working with Ajit Pawar and organised a ‘Jan Sanman Yatra’ in the Anushakti Nagar constituency.

Malik will in all likelihood be switching constituencies. Instead of Anushakti Nagar, he will be contesting from the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar assembly seat against Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, as reported in HT on September 26. Malik’s daughter Sana Shaikh will be fielded from Anushakti Nagar instead. She was part of Sharad Pawar’s faction after the NCP split but has decided to join her father. This will be Sana’s electoral debut.

The Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar assembly seat has been held by Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi for the last three terms. Azmi, who also attended the MVA’s joint meeting, criticized Malik for leaving the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. “The MLA from your constituency was in my party in the past. He used to request me to get a ministerial position. I requested Netaji (the late Mulayam Singh Yadav was fondly called as Netaji) and requested him to speak to Sharad Pawar ji and get him a portfolio. Later, he defected to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and now he has shifted loyalty to Ajit Pawar because he is afraid of the (money laundering) case,” Azmi said, without naming Malik.

Azmi also said that the same Malik now wants to contest against him in the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency. “I am not afraid of anyone, let him contest. I will have no grief even if I lose. I have no greed for any position and I fight only for justice,” he said.

Both the NCP (SP) and Samajwadi Party have staked their claim to contesting the Anushakti Nagar seatR