SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Dec 6: Senior Muslim leaders of Congress, who were in the race for the district president, have raised the banner of revolt against the selection of the new district unit president by the party’s high command.
Notably, Congress state committee members Sultan Ahmed, Shamsher Alam, district vice-president Mukhtar Khan and Shahida Qamar have opposed the selection of Santosh Singh as the new president of the Dhanbad district in place of Brajendra Prasad Singh.
Santosh Singh is one of the senior leaders of the party in the coal belt and delegate of the All Indian Cong Committee (AICC).
They said that the minority members in the coal belt felt cheated by the party’s high command. All these four leaders were in the race for president and had appeared for an interview at Ranchi. They shared their resentment against the selection of Dhanbad’s president on social media.
Senior leader Shahida Qamar has alleged that the minority community feels cheated by Cong Party. “Minority community members have been with Cong Party for the last 70 years and are participating in Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi but in Jharkhand they got nothing,” she said.
Moreover, Shamsher Alam said that among the 14 candidates who were shortlisted by the state committee for Dhanbad district president, he was considered a strong claimant but at last he is nowhere. “I have lodged a protest with national president Mallickarjun Kharge and urged him for reviewing the list National president has directed Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pandey in this regard,” said Shamsher Alam. He has been associated with the party organisation for the last 30 years.
Mukhtar Khan has also come out openly against the selection of the district unit president. He said a fair deal should be done with the dedicated party workers who served the organization for several years.
Muslim leaders said that the Cong party won the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat (Dadai Dubey) after 29 years in 2004 and the Dhanbad Sadar assembly seat (Manan Mallick) in 2009 after 20 years in the regime of Manan Mallick as district president.
All aggrieved Muslim leaders of Dhanbad said that they have been in constant touch with senior party leader and former Godda MP Furkan Ansari for revision of the district president list of Cong.
