Mumbai, May 6 (IANS) Maharashtra Congress Working President, M Arif Naseem Khan announced on Monday that he has withdrawn his resignation from the state party campaign panel and will canvass for all Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.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.
–IANS
qn/rad
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
