BENGALURU: Karnataka Housing Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan is unlikely to be the X factor garnering Muslim votes for Congress in the Davanagere South and Bagalkot Assembly bypolls as he is busy campaigning in the Kerala Assembly elections.
He has been assigned 33 constituencies where the Muslim population is high. He is addressing public meetings and interacting with clerics to influence community voters.
It is said that Horticulture Minister SS Mallikarjun, whose son Samarth Shamanur is in the fray from Davanagere South, reportedly did not want Zameer to visit the constituency. This is because Zameer had allegedly provoked Muslim youth to demand Congress tickets to community members from both constituencies.
In fact, Congress leader Sadiq Pailwan had filed his nomination as an independent, but Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad and MLC Salim Ahmed, chief whip in the Council, managed to convince him to pull out.
Zameer had told Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that he will not go to Davanagere South if Mallikarjun did not want him. But it was because Zameer feared the ire of Muslim religious leaders, who urged community members to defeat the Congress candidate as the ticket was denied to their community member, sources said.