No question of Nawab Malik’s resignation, says Maharashtra’s MVA government

Sharad Pawar says the Minister is being harassed for being vocal against misuse of Central agencies

Throwing their weight behind Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, the leadership of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday categorically ruled out Mr. Malik’s resignation until his guilt was proven.

Following Mr. Malik’s arrest, all top NCP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, MP Supriya Sule and Minister Jayant Patil, were cloistered in a meeting at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai. This was immediately followed by a meeting at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s official residence ‘Varsha’ in which leaders of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, including Mr. Pawar were present.

Speaking to reporters after the MVA leadership meeting, NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said: “Nawab Malik’s arrest by the ED is unfortunate. There is no question of accepting his resignation until his guilt has been proven. This is an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] to destabilise the MVA government.”

The MVA government would not give the BJP the satisfaction of seeing its Ministers resign after the latter dug up obscure 'cases' against them, he remarked.

“Nawab Malik's name has not surfaced once in the 30 years that have passed since the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. So, this attempt by the BJP, by raking up some obscure case against him is clearly an effort to disrupt the MVA,” he said.

Mr. Bhujbal said that as a mark of protest against Mr. Malik’s arrest and the BJP-led Union government’s misuse of Central agencies, all MVA Ministers would sit on a dharna on Thursday. All three parties would jointly hold State-wide protest on Friday at the district as well as taluka levels.

Following Mr. Malik’s arrest, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called up Mr. Sharad Pawar to express her solidarity. Sources close to Ms. Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress chairperson had suggested to the NCP chief not to remove Mr. Malik from the Ministry. The leaders also discussed on having a united front against the Central investigative agencies.