Zameer Ahmed Khan: Man in the midst of many controversies

Karnataka Congress Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan faces controversies, sparking internal party tensions and disciplinary actions.

Minister for Housing, Waqf, and Minority Welfare B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, a key Muslim face in the Karnataka Congress, has made it to headlines frequently in the recent past for all the wrong reasons. In fact, the five-time MLA and entrepreneur has found himself at the centre of a series of controversies after he entered public life two decades ago.

Over the past month, Mr. Khan’s handling of the Ministry of Waqf and his “racial” remarks against JD(S) leader and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s skin colour, just ahead of byelections to three constituencies in Karnataka, has not gone down well in the Congress. Congress candidate from Channapatna constituency C.P. Yogeshwar himself hinted that Mr. Khan’s remarks on Mr. Kumaraswamy are likely to have an adverse impact on the party’s prospects.

Sources in the Congress said close to two dozen MLAs petitioned All India Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge against Mr. Khan on the manner in which notices were issued to farmers claiming that their land as waqf property. This forced the Chief Minister to direct officials to withdraw the notices issued to farmers.

Amid this, Mr. Khan stirred up another row when he termed the High Court ruling on the alleged MUDA scam as a “political judgment”. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, acting on a representation, has directed the Advocate General to initiate action against the Minister.

Mr. Khan, who runs National Travels and has always had celebrity links, entered politics through the byelection to Chamarajpet constituency in Bengaluru in 2005 on the JD(S) ticket after former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna vacated the seat following his appointment as the Governor of Maharashtra.

He famously drove a bus carrying JD(S) legislators to a resort in 2006 when H.D. Kumaraswamy walked out of the coalition government led by N. Dharam Singh. Mr. Khan subsequently won on the JD(S) ticket thrice before jumping to the Congress in 2018.

Some argue that while Mr. Kumaraswamy used Mr. Khan to target the Congress when he was in the JD(S), the Congress leadership is now using him to target his former political boss.