'Congress Wants Muslim Votes, Not Candidates?' Congress' Naseem Khan resigns; BJP reacts

Maharashtra Congress leader Muhammed Arif 'Naseem' Khan has resigned from the party's campaign committee and said that he won't campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. In a letter to the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Khan said that he won't campaign for the Lok Sabha elections as the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bloc had not fielded a Muslim candidate. 

Khan highlighted that many Muslim organisations, leaders, and party workers in Maharashtra were expecting Congress to field at least one candidate but "unfortunately" the party hasn't nominated a single Muslim candidate. 

"Now they are asking...Congress ko Muslim vote chahiye...candidate kyu nahi (Congress wants Muslim votes, but why not candidates)?" Khan asked in the letter.

"Due to all these reasons, I will not be able to face and I have no answers to the Muslims and other Muslim organizations in Maharashtra who always raise this issue...Therefore, I have decided not to campaign for the party during the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and also resign from the campaign committee of the Maharashtra Lok Sabha election 2024," he further added in the letter.

It is to be noted that the MVA coalition in Maharashtra consists of the Congress Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). As per their seat-sharing agreement in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha election 2024, Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest 21 seats, Congress will compete for 17 seats, and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) will field candidates in 10 seats.

Khan was expected to be nominated from Mumbai North Central. However, the Congress chose city unit president Varsha Gaikwad instead. He had contested the 2019 assembly elections from Chandivali in Mumbai, where he lost by 409 votes.

Khan told news agency PTI that the Congress it seems has deviated from its long-held ideology of inclusivity.

The Congress leader received numerous calls from minority groups and party workers asking why they were neglected in ticket allotments for the Maharashtra elections.

Reacting to this, BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh said that there is a fight going on within the INDIA bloc. 

“When Congress believes that they will get all the votes of Muslims, then why aren’t they giving tickets to them? There's a fight going on within the (INDIA) alliance,” Singh told news agency PTI.