A row erupted within the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra on Tuesday after the Nationalist Congress Party fielded former state minister Nawab Malik as its candidate from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar seat for the Assembly elections in the state.

After Malik’s nomination, the Bharatiya Janata Party said it would not campaign for the Nationalist Congress Party candidate and declared the Shiv Sena’s Suresh Krishna Patil, also known as Bullet Patil, as its candidate from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar.

The Mahayuti alliance comprises the BJP Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Malik filed his nomination on Tuesday. Earlier this month, the former minister, who previously served as a legislator from Anushakti Nagar, said that he would run as an Independent candidate from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar after the Nationalist Congress Party, reportedly under pressure from the BJP, denied him a ticket, the Hindustan Times reported.

“I had filed the form as an Independent candidate also,” Malik told ANI. “But the party has sent the AB form and we have submitted it at 2.55 pm and now I am official candidate of NCP.”

Form A and Form B – referred collectively as the ‘AB Form’ – are submitted to the Election Commission to indicate that a certain candidate has been approved by a political party as its candidate and should be allotted the election symbol of that party.

“I am very confident that this time we will win Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency,” Malik told ANI.

Following this, BJP’s Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar said that all parties in the Mahayuti alliance had to choose their own candidates.

“However, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other leaders in the BJP have explained the BJP’s position regarding the nomination of Nawab Malik from the NCP,” India Today quoted him as saying. “Our position is not to promote gangster Dawood Ibrahim and the person related to Dawood’s case.”

Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in February 2022 in a money laundering case involving Ibrahim and his aides. He is currently out on bail.

The Enforcement Directorate’s inquiry against Malik is based on a case filed by the National Investigation Agency against Ibrahim, his sister Haseena Parkar and his aides under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The central agency has alleged that Malik bought approximately three acres of land in Mumbai’s Kurla in 1999 and paid Rs 85 lakh, including Rs 55 lakh in cash between 1999 and 2005, to Dawood’s sister. According to the Enforcement Directorate, the property had been usurped from its original owners and sold to Malik in connivance with members of the “gang”, referring to Dawood’s aides.

Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23, alongside that of the Jharkhand elections.

Palghar MLA goes missing

Meanwhile, Shriniwas Vanga, the sitting MLA from Palghar and part of Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena, went missing after the seat was allotted to another candidate, NDTV reported on Tuesday.

Ahead of him going missing, NDTV quoted Vanga as saying that he was sorry about joining the Shinde Sena. He told reporters that he had left a “god-like person [referring to former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray] for Shinde and now I have been betrayed”.

Vanga added that he had been told all sitting MLAs would be fielded again in the upcoming elections. However, the Palghar seat was given to former MP Rajendra Gavit, who left the BJP and joined Shinde’s group ahead of the elections.

Vanga left his home at 7 pm on Monday and has been unreachable since, according to NDTV. His wife said that he wanted to meet Thackeray and apologise to him in person.

After the 2019 Maharashtra polls, the Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena quit its alliance with the BJP and had formed the state government along with a united Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.

However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government collapsed in June 2022 when a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde rebelled and formed a government with the BJP. This split the Shiv Sena into two factions, with one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde who became the chief minister.

A year later, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs, also joined the ruling coalition. This split the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing his nephew Ajit Pawar.