Mumbai, April 26 (IANS): In a major jolt for the Congress, a senior Muslim leader of the party and one of the 'star campaigners' on Friday opted out of the campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha election, and also quit the poll campaign committee.

Congress' Maharashtra unit Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan has shot off a letter to the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge, expressing deep disappointment over Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies for not fielding any Muslim candidate in Maharashtra for the 2024 LS elections.

"From the total of 48 seats in the state, the MVA has not nominated a single Muslim candidate. Many Muslim organisations, party leaders, and staunch workers were hopeful that at least one prominent Muslim leader would be in the fray, but that has not happened," said Khan.

He pointed out that now the minority community is making embarrassing statements such as "the Congress wants Muslim votes, but doesn't want any Muslim candidates in elections", and rued that "now I can't face them as I have no answers as the Muslims have always supported the party".

Khan, a former state minister and close to the Gandhi family, had been clamouring for at least one of the two Lok Sabha seats that have come to the Congress quota in Mumbai.

However, late on Thursday (April 25), the party fielded Mumbai city unit Congress president Varsha E. Gaikwad from the Mumbai North Central seat, leading to much heartburn among the top Muslim leaders in the party.

"I am very upset with this unfair decision of the Congress… in the past, whenever the party assigned me election responsibilities in states like Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana, West Bengal and others, including Maharashtra, I faithfully executed them. Now, I shall not campaign for the third, fourth and fifth phases of the LS 2024 elections," Khan said.

The state or central Congress leaders have not yet reacted to Khan's shocking move so far as it could have potentially severe implications on the MVA's minority support base in the remaining 35 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra where elections are scheduled in May.

Incidentally, last month, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar slammed the MVA for not nominating any Muslim candidate in the state for LS polls.