By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : In a first of its kind development a leader of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind was today elected to the Andhra Pradesh legislative council,, upper House of legislature, as Congress member.
Hafiz Shabbir Ahmad, former president of state wing of Jamiatul Ulema was today declared elected unopposed in a by election caused by the resignation of by Habeeb Abdul Rahman of Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
While Shabbir Ahmad was happy and declared that he will work for the welfare and development of minority community, his election has left several Muslim leaders in the state Congress fuming because an outsider was preferred over them.
Shabbir Ahmad’s nomination by Congress had come as a shock to many because he is not a member of the Congress party. “I don’t know what is the rationale of preferring an outsider over the Congress leaders who have been working for the party for decades”, one of the Muslim leaders wondered.
Earlier the state Congress government had appointed Shabbir Ahmad the chairman of state Haj committee again angering the Muslim leaders in the Congress party.
However informed sources said that Shabbir Ahmad’s choice for legislative council was made by the central leadership of Congress, who needs the help of the central leadership of Jamiatul Ulema in Uttar Pradesh in next year’s Parliamentary elections.
According to the sources in Congress, Jamiat’s general secretary and member of Rajya Sabha Mahmood Madani was helping the Congress party in reaching an electoral tie up with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Shabbir Ahmad is not the first outsider to get preference in political appointments and elections. Earlier Rashid Alvi, a Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh was twice elected to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh while there were many leaders like former MP Khaleelur Rahman and Basheeruddin Babu Khan hoping for an opportunity. Similarly Raheemuddin Ansari, another non Congress person was appointed as the chairman of AP Urdu Academy in recognition of the support of Muslim United Forum in elections.