Bengaluru: An over-zealous campaign to turn the Muslim community against the Janata Dal (S) ahead of the assembly poll and his ambition to become Deputy Chief Minister appears to have cost veteran Congress leader, R. Roshan Baig another stint as Minister in Wednesday's cabinet expansion.
As the Congress campaigned for the assembly poll, Mr Baig reportedly instructed heads of mosques to mobilise the community's votes for it and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. But on hearing about it, an infuriated JD (S) supremo, H.D. Deve Gowda gave the thumbs down for Mr Baig's induction into the Cabinet and made his views clear in a secret communication to Congress leaders, according to party sources.
Also, the campaign by Mr Baig's supporters to make him Deputy Chief Minister in the coalition government is said to have alarmed some Muslim leaders, who felt he could grow too powerful for their comfort and so indicated to the party's central leadership that he had done very little for the community. On the other hand, they reportedly backed Chamarajpet MLA, Zameer Ahmed Khan, who had left the JD(S) to join the Congress ahead of the poll, saying he was accessible and would be of more help to the community.
Moreover, Mr Zameer Ahmed Khan himself played his cards right, building bridges with Mr Deve Gowda and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy soon after the coalition government was formed.
His strategy appears to have paid off as the party high command zeroed in on him for a Cabinet berth and not Mr Baig.
Mr Baig could not be reached for his comments on this issue.
