Only two people decide everything in the party now, says Habib Fakih.
Upset with the new guard in the Nationalist Congress Party, or NCP, and the way it has gone about ticket distribution in the coming elections, a chunk of the minority leaders in the party has resigned. And they could be heading for the Shiv Sena or the BJP.
The NCP had ended its 15-year alliance with the Congress last week and despite speculations to the contrary, the party had insisted that it would not form an alliance with the BJP. A list of 131 candidates was announced on September 27. (Read:
As Two Alliances Break Down in Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan Questions Timing)
"Only two people decide everything in the party now. Sharad Pawar used to believe in collective leadership," said minorities' cell chairman Habib Fakih, who was with the NCP for a decade. His indication was Mr Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and senior party leader Sunil Tatkare.
"The minorities accept Pawar Saheb as a leader. But the party leadership is with Ajit Pawar," Fakih said. "Ajit Pawar is not acceptable to us. In the last five years as finance minister, he had not done anything for minorities."
The walkout by the minority cell barely two weeks before the elections can cost the NCP dear. The cell drew in the minority vote - which it is roughly close to 11% of the electorate.
The ticket distribution in the minority-dominated areas has gone awry, Mr Fakih said. "Marathwada has 40% Muslims, but they have given tickets to irrigation contractors. Local Muslim leaders should have been given ticket. In Amravati too, they have done the same thing." (Read:
BJP, NCP Release Lists of Candidates for Maharashtra Assembly Polls)
The breakaway group, he said, could join the BJP or the Sena, since "no political party is untouchable".
Alleging that the NCP and the Congress were allying with Sena and BJP men at the local level, Mr Fakih said in the five years of Sena-BJP rule, "there was not a single riot". "They are no longer untouchable for minorities."
Maharashtra, which goes to polls on October 15, is in for a five-way contest after both ruling and the opposition alliances split last week.