Chanda Congress minority cell chief quits

CHANDRAPUR: Senior Congress leader Abid Ali, district president of the minority cell for seven years, has resigned from the post. He sent the resignation to MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre to protest the party's decision of not giving a single seat to Muslim leader in last zilla parishad polls.
Earlier on Saturday, district Congress president Vinayak Bangde had resigned following a dispute with ex-MP Naresh Puglia over ticket distribution in CMC elections.
Abid Ali has however resigned from the post to flay the party's partiality towards Muslims. He said that the district has over 2.25 Muslim population. While the party used them as vote-bank none of the leaders tried to offer even a single seat to the community.
Ali said that the decision to sideline the minority community led to the failure of Congress in ZP election. He claimed that the Congress candidates lost elections in 11 seats where there was a minority population of 1,500 to 3,000. BJP won by 100 to 200 votes in eight seats against the Congress candidates while NCP got three seats due to division of Muslim votes.
He said that though he was president of the minority cell, he was not given a role during interviews and selection of candidates for the municipal polls. He said he resigned as he was unable to give justice to the post.