New Delhi, April 26:Former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief arrived in New Delhi on Saturday to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi who summoned him here after the veteran party leader resigned from the party following denial of ticket to his grandson for the Assembly election.

Sharief, who is likely to meet the Congress president on Sunday, hinted that denial of ticket to his grandson was not the only issue and he was rather unhappy with the state of affairs in the state Congress unit.

“It (ticket denial) is a silly matter, a propaganda to belittle me. There are various issues which I could not discuss with the media,” he told reporters. He claimed that there was a “certain failure” on the part of state leadership in addressing the issues and concerns raised by him. “It should have been sorted out there. Delhi should come into picture only when there is arbitration,” he said.

“Sometimes certain situations in life make one look back on various issues to find where one stands,” the former Railway Minister, who has been sidelined for the past few years in the party, said. Asked whether he was in touch with other parties, he said he had “many friends” in several political parties.

On BSP’s presence in Karnataka, he said it would have an impact on the election and reminded that the Congress had lost at least 30 seats in the 2004 Assembly elections due to the BSP. Sharief said the Congress prospects in the election depended on the selection of candidates and the way the leadership designed the campaign strategy.

The Congress gave ticket to Sharief’s son-in-law Syed Yasin in Raichur Assembly segment, a seat he had lost in the 2004 polls, but refused to accept his demand for another ticket to his family member.

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