Two-time Kadwa (Katihar) MLA and former JNU Students Union (JNUSU) president Shakeel Ahmad Khan, 58, has become the Bihar Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, replacing Bhagalpur MLA Ajit Sharma in this position. The last time a Muslim leader was appointed as the CLP leader was in 2000, when Furkaan Ansari was picked by the Congress leadership for the post. Khan’s appointment as the CLP leader is considered crucial to the grand old party’s positioning in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of the state. Khan has been active in the Seemanchal region — which comprises Katihar, Purnia, Araria and Kishanganj districts — for two-and-a-half decades. He was elected as the JNUSU president in 1992, when he was with the CPI(M)-affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI). He joined the Congress in 1999. He has represented the Kadwa Assembly segment in the Katihar district twice since 2015. However, prior to now, he did not hold any key position within the state Congress. Party sources told The Indian Express that Khan emerged as the Congress’s CLP pick owing to two factors — his influence in Seemanchal and the party’s attempt to strike a balance with different caste groups within the Bihar unit. "With so much at stake in Seemanchal politics, the Congress wanted to invest in a leader like Khan. The AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-ittehadul Musalameen) is making its presence slowly felt in the area and the party was looking for a strong face who can neutralise the (AIMIM chief) Asaduddin Owaisi factor. The party has a good hold in Kishanganj, but we are hoping Khan’s presence would strengthen our unit in Seemanchal. We hope he becomes a pan-Bihar Muslim face,” said a senior Congress leader. With Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh (an upper caste Bhumihar leader) becoming Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president last year, there were already murmurs that fellow Bhumihar leader Sharma might not keep his CLP position for long. Outlining his priorities after becoming CLP leader, Khan told reporters on Saturday: "I would try to raise the voice of Seemanchal and the entire state in and outside the Assembly on matters of public concern". While Shakeel Ahmad and Choudhary Mehboob Ali Qaisar served as the BPCC chiefs in the past, very few leaders from the minority community have been the CLP leader so far. Before Ansari, the last member of the community to have served in the CLP position was Abdul Gafoor, who had also become the state CM between July 1973 and April 1975).
