BENGALURU: A day after the bypolls to the Davanagere South Assembly constituency, all is not well in the state Congress, as several Muslim community leaders, including Chief Whip in the Council Saleem Ahmed, have alleged that there was a conspiracy by a few within the party to defeat the party candidate, Samarth Shamanur.
“Some senior Congress leaders had planned a major conspiracy to defeat Samarth. The Minorities, however, have voted in favour of the party. AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, KPCC president and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah have information regarding this. Samarth was fielded after consent from all the Minority community leaders. However, there was some misunderstanding. Khwaja Bande Nawaz head from Kalaburagi gave a message in favour of the Congress as the BJP should not get an edge,” Saleem told reporters on Friday. Saleem was addressing a joint press conference along with community leaders, including legislators Rizwan Arshad, Yasir Khan Pathan and Balkis Banu.
Saleem, however, claimed that the party’s internal survey has revealed a landslide victory for Congress in Davanagere South as people are impressed with the five guarantees of the government besides the development work carried out by Samarth’s grandfather and former MLA late Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
He stressed that MLAs NA Haris and Tanvir Seth had worked hard in Davanagere to consolidate minorities’ votes for the party.
According to informed sources, AICC secretary Karnataka in-charge Abhishek Dutt has filed a detailed report to the high command, including Mallikarjun Kharge, recommending action against those leaders who had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to defeat Samarth. Samarth is the son of Karnataka Horticulture Minister SS Mallikarjun and Member of Parliament from Davanagere Prabha Mallikarjun.
Meanwhile, some party leaders have lodged a complaint with AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala against Karnataka Housing Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, as the latter did not campaign in Davanagere South.
Zameer was sulking as the Congress had denied a ticket to a Muslim candidate. He was busy campaigning for UDF in neighbouring Kerala. Zameer had also strained his relationship with Mallikarjun as the latter had reportedly said that the former is not indispensable. On the insistence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Zameer had visited Mallikarjun on April 5 and buried the hatchet. Except for having lunch and speaking to reporters, Zameer did not campaign for Samarth. Zameer had lobbied for a ticket for his loyalist MLC Abdul Jabbar, who also did not campaign.
Another minority leader, Sadiq Pailwan, had filed his nomination papers as a Congress rebel candidate. The party had sought the help of Zameer and MLC Nazir Ahmed to convince Sadiq to withdraw the papers, but in vain. But Saleem and Rizwan visited Sadiq and convinced him to withdraw his papers.