Bengaluru: Congress veteran C.K. Jaffer Sharief, who managed to get the party ticket for his grandson Rehaman Sharief for the by-election to the Assembly from Hebbal constituency, has a bigger challenge ahead of him.
Even before winning over voters for his grandson, the former Union minister will have to get senior Muslim leaders from the city on his side. Sources feel this is a more challenging task than getting the party ticket. Mr Sharief’s strained ties with former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan is no secret.
The Sharief camp maintains that Mr Khan is not a popular leader and had no big following in Hebbal. But sources say Mr Khan has infrastructure and information minister R. Roshan Baig, deputy chairman of the state planning board C.M. Ibrahim and other legislators on his side which could pose a big hurdle to Sharief junior’s prospects.
There are leaders in the Congress who would love to side with Mr Khan just to diminish the clout of Mr. Jaffer Sharief so that they could take over the community’s leadership. And to achieve this, they have been firing from senior leader Mr Khan’s shoulder. Last week when Muslim leaders met Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, the group led by Mr Khan pressed for not giving ticket to Mr. Rehaman Sharief despite knowing the fact that he had lost the 2013 polls by a narrow margin.
This was a clear indication of the differences between the Sharief camp and others. Though Mr Sharief managed to drum up support from 30 mosques, insiders feel this is not an indication of his popularity. A Muslim leader said, “When a leader of Mr Sharief's stature seeks support, would mosque authorities say no? They might have thought that if their pressure would work in favour of a Muslim candidate, what’s wrong in backing Sharief? This does not mean all Muslims who frequent these mosques would vote for Mr Sharief’s grandson.”
