Abdul Jabbar quits Congress post as rift within Muslims escalates

Bengaluru: Lawmaker K Abdul Jabbar has resigned as chairperson of the Karnataka Congress’ minorities department, deepening discord among Muslim leaders over allegations that some of them worked against the party in the Davangere South bypoll.

Jabbar, an MLC, told reporters that he sent his resignation to Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar on Saturday afternoon. 

However, the resignation letter was dated April 3, almost a week before polling in Davangere South where some Muslim leaders, including Jabbar, have been accused of conspiring to defeat Congress. 

On Friday, Government Chief Whip Saleem Ahmed and Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad told a news conference that senior Muslim leaders in the party attempted to sabotage the Congress’ Davangere South bypoll effort. They did not take names, but all fingers pointed to Jabbar, Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan and Chief Minister’s Political Secretary Naseer Ahmed. 

In his resignation letter, Jabbar said he was stepping down with “a heavy sense of sadness” over the state-of-affairs concerning Muslims and their leaders in Congress.

He pointed to “disrespectful” statements made against Zameer, which he said hurt Muslim Congress workers. Speaking to reporters later, Jabber described Zameer as “the most popular Muslim leader in Congress after Aziz Sait and Jaffer Sharief.”  

'Not consulted'

Next, Jabbar lamented that he and his minorities department were not asked for their inputs during the Davangere South bypoll. Third, Jabbar claimed that a few Muslims leaders were being sidelined. 

Jabbar said he dispatched his resignation to Shivakumar after watching, and being hurt by, Friday’s press conference by Saleem and Rizwan. “It was a shock to see the Congress office being used as a platform to attack the party’s minority leaders,” he said. 

“The allegation is that we supported the SDPI and independent candidate. What’s the proof? We’ve heard many times that Rizwan Arshad, after being denied the ticket in Mysuru, supported SDPI against Tanveer Sait. But we didn’t believe it,” Jabbar said. 

Neutral in poll?

Jabbar, who was a ticket aspirant himself, stopped short of saying that he became neutral at one point in time during electioneering. “I had ill health. Also, I wasn’t invited for canvassing by the candidate, his mother or father,” he said. 

“Minority voters and minority office-bearers are the backbone of our great Congress party,” Jabbar wrote in his resignation letter, “and (they) certainly deserve better than this.”