Mumbai: M Arif Naseem Khan, Maharashtra Congress Working President, who had initially resigned from leading the election campaign, has reversed his decision and will continue to campaign 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 AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala, state Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe and other senior leaders.
IANS had first reported on May 4 on the likely developments and how Khan’s name was included as a ‘Star Campaigner’ for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20 and that he would campaign for all the INDIA bloc candidates in the state.
“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,” declared Khan.
Khan’s abrupt move 10 days ago (April 26) had rattled the Congress and MVA allies after he publicly questioned why the Opposition alliance had for the first time not fielded a single Muslim candidate in any of 48 LS constituencies in the state.
A contender for the Mumbai North Central LS seat, he had warned 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.
On Monday, Khan reiterated that along with the party, he would strongly campaign for Mumbai North Central candidate Prof. Varsha Gaikwad and other MVA candidates in the state.
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 Opposition MVA have put up any candidates from the Muslim or other minority communities like Christians, Sikhs in the state for the 2024 LS polls.
However, in 2014 and 2019, the Congress had fielded a sole Muslim, Hidayatullah Barkatullah Patel from Akola LS constituency who was trounced both times by the BJP’s Sanjay Dhotre.