PUNE, India, 30 April 2008 — Former Railway Minister and prominent Karnataka state Congress leader C.K. Jafar Sharif is tipped to take over as Maharashtra governor. He would be the second politician from Bangalore after S.M. Krishna to become the state governor. Krishna, a former Karnataka chief minister, relinquished the post of Maharashtra governor recently to rejoin state politics. According to Congress party sources, Sharif recently resigned from Congress, angry over the selection of candidates for Karnataka Assembly elections, but was persuaded to withdraw his resignation by party president Sonia Gandhi.
Gandhi called Sharif to Delhi and succeeded in pacifying him and clearing misunderstandings between him and the party top brass. Sharif was offered the post of governor of Maharashtra.
It was decided at the meeting that he would assume office only after the Karnataka Assembly poll, said a senior state Congress minister.
Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders in Pune and Mumbai said the appointment of Sharif as governor would help both parties in parliamentary and assembly elections later this year. The Muslim face of Sharif would help Congress more than the NCP to garner Muslim votes, said Vilas Jadhav, a Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing leader.
