Nawab Malik arrest | BJP will not rest until Minister resigns, says Chandrakant Patil

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not sit still until Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik tendered his resignation, said BJP State President Chandrakant Patil while accusing Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of ‘compromising’ and failing to act with the firmness that his father, the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray had shown at the time of the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

Mr. Patil, along with BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, was leading BJP activists who were protesting in Mumbai against the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government (of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress) in calling for Mr. Malik’s resignation following the latter’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case which allegedly had linkages to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and those convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

“In the last 27 months, every imaginable crime – be it robbery, having illicit relations, taking bribes from police – have been committed by Ministers of the MVA. Now, the Chief Minister is protecting such a minister [Mr. Malik] who has shadowy links with the underworld. Why does Uddhav Thackeray feel the need to compromise in a bid to protect Mr. Malik?” alleged Mr. Patil.

Interestingly, Mr. Thackeray has maintained a studied silence following Mr. Malik’s arrest, with almost all top Sena leaders remaining absent in the solidarity protest held today by the MVA leaders against the ED’s action.

Mr. Patil further accused Mr. Thackeray’s current alliance partner - NCP supremo Sharad Pawar - of ‘destroying’ the Shiv Sena-BJP relationship while branding Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut of being “Mr. Pawar’s agent.”

Mr. Somaiya, who was recently involved in a bitter war of words with Mr. Raut, said that all of the Thackeray government’s ‘Dirty Dozen scamsters’ would soon find themselves in jail.

Mr. Somaiya took to Twitter to post the names of 12 leaders from the MVA which included - besides those of Mr. Malik and jailed ex-Home Minister Anil Deshmukh - the names of Mr. Raut, Sena leader and Minister Anil Parab, NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Hasan Mushrif and Jitendra Awhad among others.