Blow to Telangana Congress: Senior leader Abid Rasool Khan resigns, to join TRS

In his resignation letter, Abid Rasool Khan said that the 15-18% Muslim population has no importance for the Congress leadership.

news Telangana 2018

The Telangana Congress suffered another blow on Wednesday, with senior leader and former state Minorities Commission Chairman Abid Rasool Khan resigning from the party. He was the Vice President of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. He will be joining the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the presence of the caretaker Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali, Minister KT Rama Rao, and MP Kavitha Kalvakunta.

In his resignation letter to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Rasool said that he was hurt and was resigning based on two reasons -- the appointment of Shaik Abdul Sohail as the Chairman of the Minorities Commission, who he called “a person with no social standing and a shady background”; and the fact that Congress appointed working presidents from the Reddy, SC, Kamma and BC communities, but none from the Muslim community. “15-18% of the Muslim Population has no Importance in front of the Party LEADERSHIP. Their votes are needed by the party does not wish to empower them (sic),” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Furthermore, he alleged that the party is “controlled by Sanghi’s wearing Khaki within the Party”.

Prior to his resignation, Rasool had said that the party, in all the districts that they have chances of winning, should give tickets to Muslims in one of the constituencies of that district.

"Can they not do that much?” he had asked the party, according to PTI.

"You don't want to give us nominated positions, don't want to give us political opportunities, you just want our votes. What is the difference between our party and the BJP?” he told the news agency.

The Congress has released the names of 75 candidates so far, out of which only four have been allotted to the Muslim community. Out of these four, three of these are in Hyderabad’s Old City area.

The Congress is part of the mahakutami, the grand alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). The Congress party, which is heading the alliance, has already announced that it will contest 93 seats, leaving 14 seats to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), 8 seats to the TJS and 3 seats to the Communist Party of India (CPI). The TJS, however, announced it will be contesting in 12.

Telangana goes to the polls on December 7 and results will be declared on December 11.