Congress leader decides not to campaign for party over no Muslim representation
Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress working president Arif Naseem Khan on Saturday pulled out from the party’s star campaigners list stating that the party has failed to give a single ticket to a member of the Muslim community in Maharashtra. He was keen to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Mumbai North Central constituency. However, he is said to be upset after the party gave the ticket to Varsha Gaikwad, who met Mr. Khan to pacify him. He has also penned a letter to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in this regard.
Mr. Khan, who is a former Maharashtra cabinet minister, said that there is resentment in the Muslim community and north Indians over the non-representation in the Congress. As a result, he has decided not to campaign for the Congress party in the remaining three phases of election. He also said that the Congress’s ideology is to give equal representation to all sections of the society, but it did reflect in the ticket distribution of the Lok Sabha election.
“Therefore, I have decided to pull out myself from the star campaigner’s list. There is tremendous pressure on me from all sections of the society including north Indians and Muslim community because they have been overlooked in the ticket distribution,” the Congress leader said.
Adv. RP Pandey, Maharashtra Congress Vice-Chairman of Legal Cell and North Indian Congress leader said that there is huge resentment in the north Indian community as the party failed to give a single ticket to a North Indian leader. “We request the party high command to address the concerns raised by Naseem Khan,” Adv. Pandey said.
In his letter to Mr. Kharge, the former Maharashtra minister said that he would not be campaigning for the party candidates in Maharashtra for the third, fourth and fifth phase. Citing reasons for not campaigning, he said, “From the total of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, MVA has not nominated a single Muslim candidate. Many Muslim organisations, leaders and party workers from all over Maharashtra were expecting Congress to nominate at least one candidate but unfortunately the party has disappointed them.”
The letter also pointed out that the Congress wants votes from Muslim but they do not want to give candidature to people from the community.
After meeting Mr. Khan, Ms Gaikwad said that he is like her big brother. “I have come to him due to my family relationship. He is committed to the ideology of the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi..I have requested him to participate in all the programmes, which are going to be organised in the coming days,” she said.
However, Mr. Khan remained firm on his stand even after the meeting with Ms Gaikwad, He said he has resigned from the star campaigner and there is no question of campaigning for any candidate.