Congress’ Saleem Ahmed is frontrunner to take on Bommai

Haveri: While chief minister Basavaraj Bommai was busy in Delhi, finalising with his senior party colleagues the BJP’s list of candidates for the assembly polls, demand was mounting on the Congress leadership to field MLC Saleem Ahmed in the Shiggaon-Savanur seat, currently represented by Bommai.
Interestingly, majority of the 60,000 Muslims in this constituency had supported Bommai in the last two elections. However, this time around, they are said to be maintaining a distance from Bommai after BJP proposed to scrap the 4% reservation quota for Muslims.
On the other hand, Ahmed got good support from the elected members of local bodies in MLC elections in Haveri district. Given such a scenario, chances of Ahmed being named as the Congress candidate from Shiggaon-Savanur are quite high.
Ahmed, though, has clarified that he is not keen on fighting the polls, unless the high command decides to field him. “I will abide by their decision,” he asserted.
Shiggaon-Savanur is one of the 14 assembly seats in Karnataka where Muslim voters are a deciding factor. No wonder, a group of Muslim Congress workers have demanded that the party field either Ajjampir Khadri or Saleem Ahmed from this seat.
For the record, Khadri had lost four elections in the past. “Though Vinay Kulkarni’s name has been announced for Dharwad, he is expected to contest from Shiggaon-Savanur, by getting his wife to contest in Dharwad. If Kulkarni comes here, it will be difficult for Bommai to win. Otherwise, Saleem Ahmed is the other candidate who can make the going tough for Bommai,” a Congress leader in Haveri said.
Meanwhile, Yasir Khan Pathan’s name is also making the rounds as the Congress candidate from Shiggaon-Savanur.
To what extent Bommai, who recently described himself as a good ‘wrestler’ during a public meeting, manages to grapple with any likely erosion of the minority community’s support for him is the moot point.