Mumbai, January 4 (IANS). Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP has targeted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ ‘Hindu Marathi Mayor’ comment. NCP leader Nawab Malik said that creating Hindu-Muslim narrative will not last long. Only those candidates who are connected with the people will win the elections.
While talking to news agency IANS, Nawab Malik said that Maharashtra was formed on the basis of language and all the people born in Mumbai are Mumbaikars. Some people want division on the basis of religion, some people want division on the basis of language. The Hindu-Muslim narrative that is being created will not last long.
He said, “When a party fears defeat, it takes the help of religion. The elections are not being held on the issue of Hindu-Muslim. There are different situations in the wards of Mumbai and there are election issues in different ways. Only the candidates who are connected to the people will win the elections. We (NCP) are contesting the elections by taking everyone along. We have fielded candidates from all religions.”
Nawab Malik said on AIMIM or Samajwadi Party (SP) that there is no direct competition with these parties. Our direct fight on most of the seats is with BJP and Shinde faction. AIMIM and Samajwadi Party are limited to just one assembly constituency. There are about 9 seats in the assembly constituency from where I myself had contested. We are confident that our party will win at least 3 out of these 9 seats.
The NCP leader said that the party is contesting on 94 seats in the BMC elections and on 3 seats where our workers could not file nominations, we have declared authorized candidates. Overall, NCP is contesting on 97 seats. Campaigning has started now and we will definitely win.
Regarding the alliance in the government with BJP, Nawab Malik said, “We are in the government with our ideas. The issue is not about staying in the government, but about ideology. We had already decided that we will contest the elections separately. Dada (Ajit Pawar) had also said that we should contest the elections separately. BJP was opposing us.”
He said that we are contesting the elections with our full strength. We hope that NCP will win many seats of BJP. Our party will win in Eknath Shinde’s constituency also. We hope that NCP will get success on more than 30 seats in Mumbai city.
–IANS
DCH/DKP