Bengaluru: Senior leader C.K. Jaffer Sharief's fury seemed to be directed more against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah - whom he claims has not bothered to call him or mend strained ties - rather than the Congress party which denied him the party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the key Bengaluru Central seat.
Challenging the claims made by Mr Siddaramaiah over extending a helping hand to Muslims, Mr Sharief told Deccan Chronicle that the short answer was "he has not helped Muslims."
Replying to a question on whether Congress party could bank on Muslims voting for it en Mass as part of the Congress' chief minister's Kuruba-Muslim vote, Mr Sharief said: "I do not know, you have to wait till April 17. But, I can say on the record, chief minister has not helped the community. The pride of the community, Amanath Bank was in trouble. Some of us requested him to facilitate soft loan to revive it.
He favoured merger with some other bank. He wanted to wipe out the very identity of the community. Muslims will not forget this. In this context, Mr Siddaramaiah has not helped the community."
The party chose Rizwan Arshad over the octogenerian, Mr Sharief for Bangalore Central. Mr Sharief reiterated that no leader including chief minister, Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar spoke to him urging him not to act in haste or take any decision that could damage the party's prospects in the elections. "So far, AICC secretary, Selva Kumar spoke to me. None spoke to me or met me to discuss the issue," he said.
Nearly 24 hours after the list of candidates was announced, Mr Sharief spoke about the issue in a voice, strangely devoid of rancour. "What to say, my friend? They have used their wisdom and taken a decision. What can I say? Now I have to decide what I should do," he said.
He refused to spell out which party he would join. The buzz is that he would join JD (S). "I am going on Umra. I will seek the guidance of the Almighty. Then I will decide," he said.
