NAGPUR: NCP MLA and former minister Nawab Malik on Thursday attended the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur.
This was the first time that Malik attended the session after he was released on medical bail by the Supreme Court (SC) in an ED case.
So far, Nawab Malik hasn’t made his position clear as to which NCP faction, Ajit Pawar or Sharad Pawar he was with.
Malik sat on the treasury benches indicating that he may now back the Ajit faction.
However, legislature officials said that since two NCP factions weren’t recognised by the speaker yet, there was no question of having separate seating arrangements for NCP MLAs from the two factions.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve, the opposition leader in the Legislative Council, slammed the BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction)-led government over Malik’s alignment with the Ajit pawar faction. Danve claimed that Malik was sitting on the treasury benches. DCM Devendra Fadnavis responded to Danve leading to a brief verbal duel between the two in the Legislative Council.
“There is a member sitting in the lower house (Legislative Assembly, about which the chief minister and the deputy chief minister have been consistently taking the stand that we cannot sit alongside a traitor.
Major criminal allegations were levelled against him. One member is sitting on the bench of the ruling party in the House. The chief minister and deputy chief minister repeatedly made public statements about him that one cannot sit alongside a traitor. Dawood Ibrahim’s financial dealings have been revealed in different ways. So we need to know what is the government’s stand in this regard,” Danve said without naming Malik.
Fadnavis replied, “One thing I wonder is that those leaders took this stand that we will not remove ministers even when the person is in jail. They are now asking for our stand. We did not sit on anyone’s lap. I and the chief minister are sitting next to each other. Beside us, Ajit Pawar is sitting with us. Beside him, sits (Chhaghan) Bhujbal. So don’t worry about us. Answer why you didn’t remove him as a minister when he was in jail after being accused of being a traitor and then ask us the question,” Fadnavis said.
NCP’s Ajit faction’s whip Anil Patil said Nawab Malik himself will reveal who he favours. “Also, our national president will tell whose side he is on. Nawab Malik will go and sit in the house, after that everything will be clear. I had applied on November 23 as the chief whip of NCP. We have been given an office in the legislature premises. The Speaker has given that office. There is no faction issue with us because the NCP is ours,” Patil said.
Later Nawab Malik was seen sitting in the Ajit faction’s office along with Anil Patil.
Ajit Pawar said that Malik was an MLA and he was determined to make his own decisions. “The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly has the right to decide where anyone should sit in the House. Everyone knows what happened in the meantime. Nawab Malik has come to the house, I called them in the morning,” Ajit Pawar said.
Malik is an accused in a money laundering case linked to the Goawala compound property.
This was the first time that Malik attended the session after he was released on medical bail by the Supreme Court (SC) in an ED case.
So far, Nawab Malik hasn’t made his position clear as to which NCP faction, Ajit Pawar or Sharad Pawar he was with.
Malik sat on the treasury benches indicating that he may now back the Ajit faction.
However, legislature officials said that since two NCP factions weren’t recognised by the speaker yet, there was no question of having separate seating arrangements for NCP MLAs from the two factions.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve, the opposition leader in the Legislative Council, slammed the BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction)-led government over Malik’s alignment with the Ajit pawar faction. Danve claimed that Malik was sitting on the treasury benches. DCM Devendra Fadnavis responded to Danve leading to a brief verbal duel between the two in the Legislative Council.
“There is a member sitting in the lower house (Legislative Assembly, about which the chief minister and the deputy chief minister have been consistently taking the stand that we cannot sit alongside a traitor.
Major criminal allegations were levelled against him. One member is sitting on the bench of the ruling party in the House. The chief minister and deputy chief minister repeatedly made public statements about him that one cannot sit alongside a traitor. Dawood Ibrahim’s financial dealings have been revealed in different ways. So we need to know what is the government’s stand in this regard,” Danve said without naming Malik.
Fadnavis replied, “One thing I wonder is that those leaders took this stand that we will not remove ministers even when the person is in jail. They are now asking for our stand. We did not sit on anyone’s lap. I and the chief minister are sitting next to each other. Beside us, Ajit Pawar is sitting with us. Beside him, sits (Chhaghan) Bhujbal. So don’t worry about us. Answer why you didn’t remove him as a minister when he was in jail after being accused of being a traitor and then ask us the question,” Fadnavis said.
NCP’s Ajit faction’s whip Anil Patil said Nawab Malik himself will reveal who he favours. “Also, our national president will tell whose side he is on. Nawab Malik will go and sit in the house, after that everything will be clear. I had applied on November 23 as the chief whip of NCP. We have been given an office in the legislature premises. The Speaker has given that office. There is no faction issue with us because the NCP is ours,” Patil said.
Later Nawab Malik was seen sitting in the Ajit faction’s office along with Anil Patil.
Ajit Pawar said that Malik was an MLA and he was determined to make his own decisions. “The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly has the right to decide where anyone should sit in the House. Everyone knows what happened in the meantime. Nawab Malik has come to the house, I called them in the morning,” Ajit Pawar said.
Malik is an accused in a money laundering case linked to the Goawala compound property.
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