BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, who served as the Muslim face of the party in the Siddaramaiah government, appears to have been sidelined while picking the DK Shivakumar cabinet. Prospects of his inclusion in the Congress 2.0 government in future are also looking remote.
Sources clearly said his name does not figure in the first list. The development comes as the Congress leadership works overtime to prevent discontent from the Davanagere South bypoll snowballing into a larger crisis within the party’s minority base.
In the bypoll held on April 9, over 20 Independent candidates -- mostly Muslims -- contested, fragmenting the vote and causing heartburn for the Congress. Prominent among the contestants were Khadar Adil Basha, D Syed Riyaz, Mansoor Ali UM, T Jabeena Aapa, Md Sadiq Pahilwan, H Suban Sab, Syed Chand Peer, Syed Imtiyaz, Khajamohiddin Gudageri, and CM Shabaz Khan, who collectively polled around 4,000 votes.
Though numerically modest, the split was seen as symbolically damaging. In spite of herculean efforts to persuade them to step back, the party could not fully stem minority discontent. The biggest setback for the Congress was the impressive performance of SDPI candidate Afsar Kodlipete, who secured nearly 19,000 votes and finished in third place.
Party sources indicate that serious complaints against Zameer have reached the high command, and he is increasingly being perceived as the key figure allegedly behind the unrest in Davanagere, in spite of his defence that the video was doctored and AI-generated.
While leaders like Jabbar and Naseer Ahmed have already been dropped for anti-party activities, Zameer’s name was conspicuously absent from the first list of ministers sworn in on Wednesday. The episode has put the Congress high command in a delicate position as it tries to balance disciplinary action with the need to retain support among the minority community, ahead of future electoral battles in Karnataka.