M Arif Naseem Khan, the Maharashtra Congress working president, announced on Monday that he will canvass votes for all Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.
A prominent Muslim leader and ex-minister, Khan made the official announcement in the presence of All India Congress Committee general secretary Ramesh Chennithala, state chief spokesperson Atul Londhe and other senior leaders.
As per earlier Free Press Journal reports, Khan and his supporters had tendered their resignations after Varsha Gaikwad was given the ticket from North-Central Mumbai. He made his displeasure known that not a single Muslim candidate had been given a ticket of any of the 48 constituencies in Maharashtra.
Khan said wrote to party national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, national secretary KC Venugopal, besides Chennithala, Nana Patole and Balasaheb Thorat, informing them that the emotions of the minority community and North Indians in Maharashtra were hurt. He said on Monday, “I am not hankering after any posts. I only sought to highlight the sentiments of the Muslim community. The senior party leaders have discussed the matters with me and I hereby withdraw my resignation from the Congress Campaign Committee.”
A contender for the Mumbai North Central seat, Khan had said that the minority community was perturbed and was asking “whether the Congress only wants Muslim votes but not Muslim leaders”, creating apprehensions of loss of minority votes for opposition candidates.
Chennithala later said, “Naseem Khan had a meeting with Rahul Gandhi ji. There is democracy in Congress. All the supporters of Naseem Khan withdrew their resignation.”
With Khan’s decision that was widely hailed in Congress and MVA political circles, the curtains have fallen on a potentially embarrassing situation with the possibility of Muslim voters staying off voting to express their angst over ‘non-inclusion’.
Interestingly, barring the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul, no other mainstream parties in the state, including the ruling Mahayuti or the MVA, have put up any candidates from the Muslim or other minority communities like Christians, Sikhs in the state for the 2024 LS polls.
