Grandson denied ticket, Jaffer resigns

Former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief, head of the Congress election manifesto committee in Karnataka...

Former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief, head of the Congress election manifesto committee in Karnataka, has pushed the party into a corner by sending a resignation letter to the high command two days before the party is scheduled to release its manifesto for the Assembly elections.

Sharief, a senior leader often seen as the minority face in the rainbow coalition created by the Congress to take on the BJP and the JD(S), sent his resignation letter on Friday. But Congress sources here said the letter has not been accepted.

Sharief’s anger over the denial of a party ticket to his grandson for the Shivajinagar constituency has not been assuaged sufficiently despite an attempt by Digvijay Singh on Wednesday, sources said. To make matters worse, the party gave the ticket to Shivajinagar to Roshan Baig, Sharief’s rival for minority votes in Bangalore North. The party said Baig was chosen over Sharief’s grandson Rehman on the criterion of the ability to win and also because Sharief’s son-in-law Syed Yasin had already been given a ticket to contest from Raichur.

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“Yasin has some experience in election politics. Last time, he lost by a relatively narrow margin. If the winnability criterion is lowered for one candidate it will have to be lowered for others like Margaret Alva’s son, for instance,” party sources said.

While there has been uproar over tickets in many areas, Sharief’s mutiny is being seen as a serious one given his role as manifesto committee head and the minority face of the party. The senior leader, who goes back to the time of Indira Gandhi, is being seriously wooed by Mayawati’s BSP and Devegowda’s JD(S), sources said.