27 February,2009 05:21 PM IST | | IANS
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Friday announced a merger with former mafia don and Maharashtra legislator Arun Gawli's party Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS).
Gawli would also contest the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat on a BSP ticket, BSP state president Vilas Garud said, adding that the ABS chief has already given a letter of consent to merge the two parties.
"It is as good as done. We have also decided to nominate him as the party candidate from Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency in the forthcoming parliamentary elections," Garud said.
The seat is presently represented by Congress' Eknath Gaekwad.
Gawli, presently lodged in jail, was elected to the assembly from Chinchpokli, a south Mumbai constituency, in 2004.
Known as Daddy among his followers, Gawli was sent to custody in September 2008 under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in connection with an extortion case.
A former associate of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, he is married to a Muslim woman, Asha (formerly Ayesha) and lives in the fortress-like Dagdi Chawl in south-central Mumbai.
