Voice of Muslim discontent in Maharashtra Congress, Arif Naseem Khan: Social activist to minister to dissident

“It was decided two months ago that I will be given the party candidature. It had enthused the minority community in Mumbai. However, the party has announced a different name from this seat (Mumbai North Central), which has created unrest within the minority community,” Khan stated in his resignation letter.

“I have no answer when people ask me why the Congress has not fielded a Muslim candidate. I also find it worth asking why a party whose foundation is based on the principles of social equality should not give a ticket to a Muslim candidate,” Khan said at a press conference on Saturday.

Khan first started working as a social activist in the wake of the 1992-93 Mumbai riots that had left close to 900 people dead. Khan, a native of Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad, would often roam the streets of the largely working class Jari Mari locality in Mumbai’s Kurla suburb, seeking funds for those affected by the riots. At this point, he was associated with the Congress as an ordinary worker.

Through his activism, he was instrumental in putting the heat on subsequent governments for their failures in implementing the Srikrishna Commission Report on the Mumbai riots that had indicted policemen and politicians for their conduct during the riots. Khan was also the first to file a petition in the Supreme Court in October 1998, seeking the implementation of the Commission’s findings.

Khan got involved with mainstream politics in 1999, when the Congress gave him a ticket from Kurla in that year’s Assembly elections. He won the seat and went on to become a minister in the state government. Since then, Khan won the Assembly election four times, becoming an MLA twice from Kurla and twice from Chandivali. He had also been a minister in the successive Congress-NCP governments and handled various portfolios.

As Khan’s political career took off, his demands for implementation of the Srikrishna panel’s report became muted.

He contested the 2019 Assembly polls from the Chandivali seat but lost to the (undivided) Shiv Sena’s Dilip Lande by just 409 votes.

After this, Khan kept a low profile in the party till he was appointed as one of the four working presidents of the state unit in 2023. While Khan wanted to make a comeback as an MLA, his name was also in the reckoning for a Lok Sabha nomination.

The Muslim community accounts for 25% population of the Mumbai city and 19% of its suburbs. The angst expressed by Khan could hurt the Congress in the Mumbai North Central constituency, which has a substantial Muslim population.

Of the six Assembly seats that constitute the Mumbai North Central seat, Kurla, Chandivali, Bandra West and Bandra East have a significant Muslim vote base. It remains to be seen if Khan’s discontent against the Congress would turn away Muslim voters from the party.

“Khan’s stance may not dent the Congress’ prospects in areas barring his own constituency of Chandivali. However Khan symbolises the discontent that is felt by many Muslim politicians and activists about how the party is taking the community for granted,” Dr Owais Shaikh, a community activist said.

Many also see Khan’s statements as part of the strategy to strengthen the ground for the Maharashtra Assembly polls that are scheduled for later this year. By keeping himself in the spotlight, he might be reinforcing his claim on the Chandivali seat.