Rattled by the arrest of Nawab Malik, the Maha Vikas Aghadi went into a huddle and decided to fight out the BJP politically but ruled out the resignation of the NCP leader from the government.
MVA chief architect and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and ministers Ashok Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat, Chhagan Bhujbal, Subhash Desai and Sunil Kedar met at Varsha, the bungalow of the chief minister.
“We met and decided two things - we will take the issue before the people and fight it out legally,” Bhujbal told reporters on Wednesday night.
However, he ruled out the resignation. “Day in, day out, the ministers and our leaders are being targeted by BJP through central agencies…does it mean that the ministers keep on resigning,” he said. When asked about the resignations of Anil Deshmukh and Sanjay Rathod, he said: “The circumstances were different.”
Bhujbal said that senior counsel Amit Desai is representing Malik and he has told us that there is no PMLA case. “Unnecessarily the Dawood Ibrahim link is said just to defame him and damage his image,” he said.
Bhujbal said that Malik has been vocal against the Centre and BJP leaders and spoke for the people.
On Thursday, leaders of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress - the three MVA partners will stage a sit-in protest at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Mantralaya in Mumbai.
From Friday, there would be statewide peaceful protests, dharnas and morchas at tehsil and district level.
Bhujbal also said that several leaders have called Thackeray and Pawar. "West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee called up Pawar saheb," he said.
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