Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024 | Ripples in Maha Yuti over Nawab Malik’s candidature, BJP says party against those with Dawood links

'We will not accept giving a ticket to someone linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim', BJP's Ashish Shelar said.

Mumbai: BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Tuesday said his party is 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,” Shelar, Mumbai BJP president, told a news channel. “We won’t support Malik and will have a different stand,” he added.

He was responding to media reports that Malik, sitting MLA from Anushakti Nagar in Mumbai South-Central parliamentary constituency, 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.