Muslims are happy with ticket allotments by Congress: Sohail

Hyderabad, November 17 (Maxim News): The Congress party on Saturday claimed that the Muslims were happy with the allotment of tickets done by the party to their community members.

“Muslim candidates have been nominated from 7 out of 94 seats being contested by the Congress party this time. This number is higher than 2014 when only 4 tickets were given to Muslims,” TPCC Minorities Dept Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail said while addressing a press conference, along with Waliullah Sameer and others, at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday. He said Congress had fielded Muslim candidates from Kamareddy, Nampally, Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Bahadurpura, Karwan and Nizamabad Urban while its ally TDP has given a ticket to Muslim candidate in Malakpet. He expressed confidence that all the Muslim candidates would win the next elections. “Winnability was the major factor considered by the Congress High Command to decide a candidate. The selection was totally fair although several other factors like seat agreement with allies delayed the announcement of candidates,” he said.

Responding to the allegations levelled by some leaders on injustice to Muslims by Congress on seat allotment, he said there was no truth in those accusations. “It sounded like a joke when Abid Rasool Khan, who was made Chairman of Minorities Commission by the Congress party and presently he was serving as Vice-President was talking about injustice,” he said. Further, he said that people like Abid Rasool Khan and others have a ‘Zamindari mindset’ and they don’t tolerate if someone like him from humble background gets some top position. “They still need the names of their father or grandfather to identify themselves. They get inferiority complex when first generation politicians like me gets some recognition,” he said adding that he was filing was a criminal defamation case for some personal remarks made by Abid Rasool Khan against him.

“Just having membership of Congress party does not entitle anyone to get a ticket to contest elections. One needs to work hard on the field and stay connected with the people to become eligible to contest elections. Unfortunately, some leaders who are good only at drawing room discussions and their constituencies are not beyond Facebook expected the party to deliver tickets at their doorstep,” he said. However, he said some genuine and eligible candidates could not get the ticket due to tough competition within the Congress party and also due to alliance.

Sohail said it was ridiculous that some Muslims leaders, who till two days ago were calling TRS an ally of BJP, have joined the same party. “Their exit from the party was equally unimportant as their presence was irrelevant in the party,” he said.

He asked the people not to get misled by the TRS propaganda and realise that issues and not individuals were important in next elections. “KCR has cheated the Muslims on the promise of 12% reservation. He did not fulfil any other promise and did not spend even half of the allocated budget. TRS is a secret ally of BJP and KCR retaining power in next elections would go against the interest of Muslim community in Telangana State,” he said. (Maxim News)