Bangalore: Senior Congress party leader from Karnataka C K Jaffer Sharief arrived in Delhi on Saturday to meet party president Sonia Gandhi and discuss his grievances over distribution of party tickets for the upcoming assembly polls in the state.

Sharief is said to have faxed a letter to Gandhi on Friday stating his displeasure on his views not being taken into consideration during ticket distribution. He has, however, refused to confirm reports of his quitting and also disagreed with a suggestion that he was aggrieved because one of his grandsons was not given a ticket to contest from a Bangalore city constituency. Sharief's son-in-law has been given a ticket to contest from a north Karnataka seat.

His party colleagues in the state are confident that Sharief will be mollified by the central leaders. "I am confident that the issue will be sorted out by our central leadership," former Chief Minister and chairman of the Congress election coordination committee S M Krishna told reporters here on Saturday.

"I have been a member of the candidate selection committees since 1972 and I know about dissidence, its impact on the party and the ability of our central leaders to tackle it," he said. Sharief told reporters in Delhi on his arrival earlier on Saturday that he could not say what the outcome of his meeting with Gandhi or other central leaders would be.

Congress sources say Sharief is more upset because former minister and another minority leader Roshan Baig has been given a ticket to contest from Shivajinagar constituency, which Sharief considers his stronghold. Sharief is chairperson of the Congress manifesto committee.

Source : IANS