Bengaluru, 11 April

Karnataka Congress Minority Department President K Abdul Jabbar announced his resignation from the post on Saturday, a day after a group of Muslim leaders accused members of their own party of "conspiring" to defeat the official candidate in the Davangere South bypolls.

Jabbar, an MLC, was an aspirant for the Congress ticket from the segment.

"It has been an honour for me to serve as Chairman of the KPCC Minority department and have worked to the best of my ability during assembly elections 2023 and followed by Parliament polls and many such occasions whenever the party needed the minority department and showed results," Jabbar has said in a letter to the party.

"Minority voters and minority office bearers are the backbone of our great Congress party and certainly deserve better," he added.

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also the KPCC President, confirmed Jabbar's resignation.

"I won't speak about this now… I will seek a report from local leaders after that I will speak," he told reporters in response to a question on internal conspiracy.

On Friday, a group of Muslim leaders alleged that there was a conspiracy by senior party leaders to defeat Samarth Mallikarjun, the party’s official candidate in Davangere South.

Chief Whip in the Legislative Council Saleem Ahmed, MLAs Rizwan Arshad, Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, MLC Bilkis Bano, and other Congress leaders alleged that the conspiracy sought to project the Congress as having “betrayed” Muslims.

Though the leaders did not name anyone, several party sources said their attack was directed at State Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan and Jabbar among others.

Samarth is the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the MLA whose death necessitated the bypolls.