Muslims get representation in state Congress unit ahead of Assembly polls

Mumbai: Amid criticism over not giving candidature from the Muslim community in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, the Congress leadership appointed Syed Muzaffar Hussain as working president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Friday. Hussain is a two-term MLC and the first deputy mayor of Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation.
It has also inducted former minority affairs minister Arif Naseem Khan into the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as a special invitee. Khan is a four-term MLA from Kurla and Chandivali assembly constituencies. He also held several portfolios in the successive Congress-NCP governments till 2014.
The appointments were made months before the state assembly elections expected to be held in October-November. On August 16, the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) declared appointing Balasaheb Thorat as a CWC member and Khan as a special invitee. Both Khan and Hussain are senior leaders who represent the Muslim community in Congress.
With the appointment of Hussain as a working president of the state unit, the number of working presidents has increased to six, including Arif Naseem Khan, Chandrakant Handore, Shivajirao Moghe, Kunal Patil and Praniti Shinde.
Khan said that the Congress tried to compensate the community for the lack of representation in the Lok Sabha elections. “In the recently held Lok Sabha elections the minority community was ignored to an extent when it came to giving candidature. It has now tried to compensate for this at the organizational level,” Khan said adding, “I hope in the assembly polls all communities will get proper representation, especially the minority community.”
Khan, who was interested in contesting the Mumbai North-West constituency, had been vocal against the party’s decision not to field any Muslim candidate from Maharashtra. He had offered to resign as star campaigner from the Congress campaign committee.
When Congress did not give a single candidate from the Muslim community in the Lok Sabha elections, it faced a lot of criticism for being a secular outfit.