Sharief withdraws resignation, to stay in Congress

Former Federal Minister C K Jaffer Sharief, who had resigned from the Congress party, withdrew his resignation after a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysore near here yesterday that the crisis gripping the Congress party in the wake of Sharief’s resignation has been blown over after the Congress President assured to resolve his grievances.

According to information reaching here, Sharief spent an hour with Sonia Gandhi at her residence in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary in charge of Karnataka Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday. After the meeting, Sharief said he was “satisfied” with the meeting.

Sharief, who is also the Chairman of the Congress party’s Manifesto Committee, had tendered his resignation from the Congress party on Friday apparently in protest against the denial of party tickets to his grandsons to contest the assembly elections scheduled to be held in May.

After the meeting, the 71-year-old veteran Congressman had announced his decision to withdraw the resignation. “I have withdrawn my resignation. I am in full agreement with Ms Sonia Gandhi’s view that securalism and unity in the party is of paramount importance in the elections. We need to prevent the communal forces from coming to power” he said.

Meanwhile, according to sources close to Sharief, the Congress President sought to remind Sharief that the country would be facing Lok Sabha polls in about a year’s time and it was necessary for all partymen to remain united to defeat the “communal forces”.

Sources also pointed out that the Congress President had assured to consider his grandson for a nomination to the State Legislative Council as he was unsuccessful in securing a party ticket. Though Sharief’s grandson Abdul Wahab had incidentally gone inside Gandhi’s residence, he was apparently not called in along with Sharief to meet the Congress President.

However, before meeting Sonia Gandhi had denied that he had sent his resignation in protest against the denial of a party ticket to his grandson to contest the elections. “It is a propaganda to malign me. I was upset with the party for ignoring minorities in the state”, Sharief had said.