BENGALURU: Politics makes strange bedfellows. Former minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, identified with the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah camp, has now reportedly shifted his loyalties to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and is pushing hard for a cabinet berth.
Ahead of the June 3 swearing-in of Shivakumar as chief minister, an audio clip of Zameer allegedly asking his community people to scuttle Congress’ chances in the Davanagere bypoll surfaced, scuttling his chances.
Zameer wanted to resign as MLA too because of the humiliation, but Shivakumar’s brother and lieutenant DK Suresh pacified him as Suresh did not want his brother’s swearing-in to be marred by the unsavoury incident, sources said. Now, Suresh is batting strongly for a cabinet berth to Zameer, they added.
On Saturday, Zameer met the DK brothers at their Sadashivanagar residence. Having missed the cabinet berth in the first phase, Zameer now has a lot of competition from Muslim legislators, like Saleem Ahmed, Tanvir Sait, Kaneez Fatima, Rizwan Arshad and others. That is why he is now going all out and meeting top leaders, including Siddaramaiah and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, to push his case.
It is said that when Siddaramaiah proposed Dr G Parameshwara’s name for the chief minister’s post, Zameer is said to have favoured Shivakumar. Siddaramaiah had taken Zameer along with him when Rahul Gandhi summoned him to discuss the change in leadership, sources said.
Siddaramaiah, however, did not back Zameer for the cabinet berth. But AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal wanted Zameer in, given his contribution to the party’s victory in the Kerala assembly polls, another source informed.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda along with Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad reportedly met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. He is lobbying for Rizwan to be made as minister, a source said.