Mumbai: The Maharashtra Assembly elections are only a week away and political party canvassing has gone into full drive to persuasion voters. Controversy has arisen when Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, supported Nawab Malik, the politician linked to the Don Dawood Ibrahim, in the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar seat over coalition partners’ objection.
Malik was given the ticket by the NCP supreme commander Ajit Pawar, who is leading a faction of the party on the last day causing a lot of resistance by allies. Pawar discussed the issue on the campaign trail in Beed district where he said his party had intentionally reserved 10 % of tickets for Muslims. “To ensure Muslim candidates got a fair share I had to create some controversy, such as, opposition,” said Pawar. “As I said before, there was a lot of controversy about Nawab Malik’s candidature and yet I supported him.”
To assert his party’s non-sectarianism, Pawar pointed out that the NCP has ensured that it uses Muslim candidates to contest in areas where such prospects are possible. “This isn’t for show. I have included Nawab Malik in the race inspite of protests. I have also given tickets to Sana Malik, Nawab Malik’s daughter and Zeeshan Siddiqui who had a mishap involving his father Baba Siddiqui,” he said but emphasised that they did not give tickets to mere symbols with electoral prospects.
Besides Mulla, other important candidates which Pawar had supported are Najib Mulla from the Mumbra-Kalwa seat and Hasnain Mushrif from the Kagal area in Kolhapur district. The Deputy Chief Minister said that he was proud that he was able to deliver on his words as earlier he had election 10 percent Muslim candidates and requested the people from the Muslim community to consider this when voting.
However, this has not come without bearings or backlash which we see underneath. A member of the Maharashtra state government that is part of the BJP, an associate member of the National Democratic Alliance, has criticised Malik on the basis of money laundering and his connexions with the underworld. The BJP has boycotted Malik, saying the latter has links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. While the BJP has an electoral arrangement with Pawar’s NCP faction and the rival faction of the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, Malik’s candidature has adversely affected the relations and the BJP has been wary of offering support.
Pawar in his last summed up the speech threw light on the ideology of NCP regarding the representation of the interests of the Muslims in the society and asked the new electorate not to be misled by any voice from other groups and parties while the NCP has been striving hard for the positive representation of these sections. However, voters of Maharashtra are left with the ever-rising bar of bargaining and adjusting in the alliance politics to decide in the last days before the polls.