Ajit Pawar to emerge as key player after Maharashtra polls: Nawab Malik
Mumbai, Nov 3: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar will emerge as a key player after the November 20 assembly polls in the state, predicted former minister Nawab Malik on Sunday.
In an interview with PTI over the phone, the NCP candidate from Mumbai’s Mankhurd-Shivajinagar seat said the politics of ideology is over in Maharashtra and nobody knows who will side with which party.
“There are even speculations that NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Eknath Shinde, who heads the Shiv Sena, will join hands,” he claimed.
Malik, who was arrested in a money laundering case and is also accused of having links with people close to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, is pitted against Samajwadi Party nominee and MVA-backed sitting MLA Abu Azmi and Shiv Sena’s Suresh Patil.
Sena and NCP are partners in the Mahayuti coalition, and leaders from the other constituent, BJP, have declared that they won’t campaign for Malik. The BJP has been a trenchant critic of Malik.
The 65-year-old politician said the assembly polls will be a neck-and-neck contest between the ruling Mahayuti coalition and opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and NCP chief Ajit Pawar will emerge as a key player after the elections.
Of the 288 assembly seats in the state, the undivided NCP had won 54 seats last time.
Ajit Pawar split the Sharad Pawar-founded NCP last year after he and MLAs loyal to him joined Mahayuti. Ajit Pawar subsequently got the party’s name and ‘clock’ symbol. Sharad Pawar now heads the NCP (SP) and is a constituent of MVA, besides Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT).
Malik said he is grateful to the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar for not seeking his resignation as minister after his arrest in 2022 when MVA was in power.
“I have already said I am grateful to them. I spoke to Uddhav ji over the phone after my release from jail and met Pawar saheb personally,” he told PTI.
Malik said he is with Ajit Pawar as the deputy CM stood by him during difficult times but did not elaborate.
Malik accused his rival and sitting MLA Abu Asim Azmi of being hand in glove with the government. “He voted for them in the legislative council and Rajya Sabha elections. He controls the local administration in the constituency,” he claimed.
In the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year, the Mahayuti candidate from the Mumbai North seat got only 28,000 votes from the Mankhurd-Shivajinagar assembly segment, he said.
“You can’t win the assembly elections with 28,000 votes. It’s true that Mahayuti has put up a candidate (Sena’s Suresh Patil) there, but I’m not in the fray out of my own will but that of the people. I am confident that I will be elected,” Malik said.
“People of Mankhurd-Shivajinagar want me to end the reign of anti-social elements and drug menace under the current MLA for the last 15 years,” he said.
The NCP leader said he has been on medical bail since July last year until the disposal of his regular bail plea before the Bombay High Court in the money laundering case. “I’ll sue anyone defaming me by accusing me of having links with Dawood Ibrahim,” he said.
As an MVA minister, Malik had repeatedly targeted the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) then the Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, following the arrest of Aryan Khan, actor Shah Rukh Khan's son, over alleged possession of drugs on board a cruise ship in 2021.
The anti-drug agency later dropped drug charges against Aryan Khan and five others due to lack of sufficient evidence.
The NCP has also nominated Malik’s daughter Sana Malik from the Anushakti Nagar constituency in north Mumbai, a seat which he represented multiple times in the past. The BJP has made it clear that it will not campaign for Nawab Malik, but has no objection to his daughter’s candidature.
Polling for the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
