Congress minority cell members resign over non-representation of Muslims

Mumbai: As the Congress has not given the Maharashtra legislative council ticket to a minority community member, there is unrest in the party ‘s minority cell. The party has given a ticket to Pradnya Satav for biennial election for 11 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Around 30 party office bearers of Muslim community have tendered their resignation from their posts.

A party insider said that this will be the first time that there will be no members from Muslim community in the Council.

Maharashtra has a total 78 members of the Legislative Council. Of the 78 members, the Congress party has eight members.

Congress legislators Wajahat Mirza and Pradnya Satav are retiring on July 27, 2024. The party high command has re-nominated Ms Satav as it can get only one candidate elected.

Zakir Hussain Kureshi, joint secretary of minority cell of Maharashtra Congress, wrote a letter to Wajahat Mirza, president of Maharashtra Congress minority cell stating the party did not give a single ticket to Muslim community in the Lok Sabha election. However, the muslim community wholeheartedly campaigned for the party candidates in Lok Sabha, the letter said.

“Leaders like Arif Naseem Khan, Wajahat Mirza and Muzaffar Hussain were in the zone of consideration for the Council election. However, the party did not nominate any of them. As a result, there is huge disappointment in the muslim community. The party has also misled the community. Therefore, I offer my resignation,” the letter said.

This paper is in possession of several letters, which echoes the same sentiments.

A senior Congress legislator claimed that Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala had sent names of Wajahat Mirza and Pradnya Satav to the party the high command, which renominated Pragya Satav, which represents Mali caste, falls under the OBC category. The OBC forms 50 per cent vote bank in the state, while the Muslim community forms 14 per cent vote bank in the society.

The Muslim community had strongly supported the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar led NCP in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

During the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress did not give a single ticket to a member of the Muslim community in Maharashtra. Following this, Maharashtra working president Arif Naseem Khan had pulled out from the party’s star campaigners list. However, Mr Khan was pacified by the party high command, so he joined the campaign in the Lok Sabha election.