HUBBALLI: After BJP, Congress is facing rebellion for picking Yasir Ahmad Khan Pathan as the candidate for the Shiggaon Assembly bypoll over Ajjampeer Khadri, who is now exploring the possibility of contesting as a rebel.
Earlier, Congress was in a dilemma whether to pick a Muslim or Lingayat candidate. For a while, it also explored the possibility of fielding a Backward Classes candidate, believing that it could fetch them upper caste votes along with the traditional Muslim and Dalit votes.
The party finally went with the Muslim candidate as it has done in the last five hustings and chose Pathan despite his loss to BJP’s Basavaraj Bommai in the 2023 Assembly poll. He had lost by around 36,000 votes. On three earlier occasions, Congress candidate Khadri had lost to Bommai with a margin of around 10,000 votes.
With party candidate Vinod Asuti securing a lead of over 8,500 votes over BJP’s Pralhad Joshi in the Shiggaon Assembly constituency in the 2014 parliamentary election and his earlier narrow losses to senior Bommai, Khadri thought he might have a chance this time against Basavaraj Bommai’s son Bharat. Despite lobbying hard, he did not succeed
A senior Congress leader said Khadri has lost his support over the last few years and this has also eroded the party’s base. Congress wants to build on the momentum seen in the Lok Sabha polls and plans to wrest the seat from BJP, he reasoned. Khadi said party leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had assured him a ticket, but changed their mind at the 11th hour. He alleged that Pathan is a BJP agent and had worked as Bommai’s agent in the past, while his relatives work for BJP.
“I believe the party will do the same thing as it did in the 2023 election. It had announced the ticket for Mohammad Yusuf Savanur, but later changed it to Pathan,” he said.
On Friday, hundreds of Khadri’s followers gathered in front of his house in Hulaguru village, urging him to contest as an independent.