K Ashraf

Early life and Career

Mr. K. Ashraf was born on 15^th November, 1966 to parents K. Ibrahim and Beefathima at Bandher, Mangalore.  He completed his primary education at Kasagalli Urdu primary school and is a high school dropout. His father tried to make him continue his education. But Mr. K Ashraf was more interested in the field of politics and social activities. During his fifth grade, he missed his final examination due to an incident where a man from his village passed away and there was no one to convey about his death news to his family. So the young K. Ashraf gave up his examination and decided to pass along the message.After this incident, his future education was quite difficult.  He has 4 siblings and is the second eldest son of the family. His family was very involved in the political field as well as fish business.

His family had to work hard to look after him and his siblings. After dropping out of school, he joined his family in the field of politics.  He used to participate in rally, spread political posters etc. Later on, he started working for his father’s fish business. All the people in his neighborhood used to address his father as K.E. ’Fish Baucha’ was his father’s friend. His father had a very good reputation in the society. He was known for his political influence and fish business.  His family was a prompt supporters of congress party. He joined the congress party under his father’s influence.  In the beginning, he used to work for the people in Bandhar. After a while, he decided to broaden his horizon.  Back then, political activities had no strict boundaries.  Mr. K. Ashraf used to stick posters, spread party knowledge, sketch the sign of his party during late night hours. Gradually he got very involved in the political activities and developed an urge in him to be a real part in the field of politics.   So he decided to be a candidate in the corporate election. After his first win as a corporator in the year 1997, he worked hard for the betterment of the people of Bandher. He dedicated his time and efforts to work for his party. He got indulged completely in the world of politics. After a while, he stepped in to the district level politics and met with many renowned leaders and respected politicians. In the year 1997, there was an issue going on about the mayor election. Mr. Harinath wanted to be the Mayor and K. Ashraf was very supportive towards him.  Mr. Harinath visited Mr. K Ashraf and formed an alliance by taking his signature. Mr. K Ashraf supported him wholeheartedly. This resulted in a major conflict between Mr. Janardhana Poojari and Mr. K Ashraf. Mr. Janardhana Poojari wanted Mr. Ramesh Kotiyan who was the then mayor to rule in the next coming year as well. Finally Mr. Ramesh Kotiyan was declared as the Mayor. This again caused a huge conflict in the mayor house. Mr. K Ashraf gave his full support to Mr. Harinath. During the Mayor election, Mr. K Ashraf was completely annoyed due to the conflict issues and excused himself to go out of the Mayor house. The people against him took advantage of this opportunity and started plotting plans to remove Mr. K Ashraf from the party.  But this plan was not successful. Mr. Vishwanath who was the district president of the congress helped Mr. K Ashraf to maintain his position in the party. Later in the year 2002, Mr. K Ashraf stood in the election as a strong candidate. After his strong win, the power of his party escalated.  As the result of the Mayor conflict, the party was split in to two. One was led by Mr. Ramanatha Rai and the other was led by Mr. Janardhana Poojari.  Eventually the two parties began to grow with time.  In the year 2002, Mr. Shashidhare Hegde and Mr. Landsy Pinto was named to stand for the Mayor election.  There were a lot of conflicts and disputes due to the mayor election. Finally Mr. Shashidhare Hegde was declared to be the mayor. This was the first time when Mr. Janardhana Poojari was defeated. They worked very hard for the election campaign. Mr. K. Ashraf was very rough and tough when it came to the election campaign. This was the first time when Mr. Janrdhana Poojari’s people lost their power. Mr. Janardhana Poojari asked Mr. K. Ashraf to take the Nagarayojana Sahitya Samithi president post. But Mr. Ashraf was not interested in it. Even though he was not interested to be the part of the committee, he had to become one.  In the year 2002, due to the immense request of his friends and followers, he decided to take the post as the Nagarayojana Sahitya Samithi president. During this time, there were two party groups, Poojari group and Maily Group.  There were lot of disputes going on between the two groups.  When Mr. K Ashraf was serving as the Chairman, Dept. Mayor Shalini supported him to the fullest. Once, Dept. Mayor Saalini was insulted by an executive engineer during a file transaction.  Dept. Mayor Saalini filed a complaint to Mr. K Ashraf. He gathered all the 22 coperators to dismiss the executive engineer from his post. During this period, Mr. D.K. Shivkumar was the urban development minister.  Mr. K. Ashraf filed a complaint to remove the executive engineer to Mr. D.K. Shivkumar. The rival group of Mr. K Ashraf took this opportunity to side with the executive engineer and started another conflict against him. He had to work hard for 5 whole months to solve this issue. After a hard fight, they finally decided to dismiss the executive engineer from his post. The entire issue turned out to be court case and finally the court ordered to dismiss the executive engineer. During this time, Mr. J.R. Lobo was the commissioner of the co-operation. It took a lot to resolve this  executive engineer matter. He had to deal with Mayor Shashidare Hegde to resolve the entire issue.  As he was serving as the Chairman, the matter of Mayor Resolution surfaced. The Backward cast people was grouped as A.  This was a good opportunity for the Muslims and the Billavas to take part as candidates in the mayor elections. This rare opportunity is given only once in 5 to 10 years.

This rare opportunity was a plus point for the muslim community. The supporters of Mr. Janardhana poojari’s corporate group wanted Mr. K Ashraf to be the Mayor.  Mr. Vijay Arun was also willing to support Mr. K Ashraf.

Mr. K Ashraf, Mr. Divakar and Mr. Vijay Arun were the candidates for the election where Mr. K Ashraf and Vijay Arun was in the same party. It would be a positive point for the Muslim community, if Mr. K. Ashraf was elected as the Mayor. But Mr. Janardhana Poojari did not want to give the mayor position to a candidate of Muslim community. Hence the party high command including Mr. Janardhana Poojari decided to give the mayor opportunity to Billava community. He wanted Mr. Vijay Arun who belonged to the Billava community. Suddenly, Mr. Vijay Arun came in to the picture. Mr. K Ashraf couldn’t understand the game plan which was nothing but pure injustice. He was being thrown behind just because of his religion.  But Mr. K Ashraf was a man with will power and was not ready to tolerate any sort of injustice. The injustice decision taken by the high command which had the huge corporater support did not stop Mr. Ashraf to fight against the entire system. He decided to stay and fight in the mayor election.  This had a negative impact on the congress district high commands decision making and reputation. As a solution, the high command gathered Mr. Jnaradhana Poojary’s corporate consisting of 22 corporaters in a resort and decided to have an election to select who to reperesent their party for the mayor election against Mr. Divakar.  The 22 corporates was to vote and select amongst Mr. K Ashraf and Mrs. Aruna. The three observers of the high command was Mr. Mohammed Mashood, Mr. Vijaya kumar Shetty (MLA of Suratkal) and Mr. Kallige Tharanath Shetty. After the election they were not ready to show the results to Mr. K Ashraf. Although the results were crystal clear. Mr. K Ashraf had the Majority but the high command had already made their mind to not give the chance to Mr. K Ashraf to compete.   A state observer named Mr. Prem Kumar who knew the results of the minor election contacted Mr. K. Ashraf and told him to remain calm and be patient about the entire election situation. He also told him that Mr. Janardhana Poojari will support him and give him the MP position. This was totally unfair.  Mr. K Ashraf was not ready to give up. He knew that he had got the majority votes and was eligibile enough to represent their party in the mayor election. Hence he went forward with the election. After the mayor election voting, Mr K. Ashraf had a total of 18 votes, Mrs. Vijay Aruna with 4 votes and finally Mr. Divakar with 20 votes. This proved that Mr. K Ashraf had won in the minor election and deserved to be the winner of the mayor election. This proved that the intention of the high command was to not give a chance to a muslim candidate as the mayor.  Mr. Divakar was declared as the winner of the election.  This was a very important election. But this was not the end to it. The election was followed by many conflicts and disputes. Most of the people were supporting Mr. K Ashraf instead of Mr. Divakar. Corporater Mr. Ravoof  and Mr. Kanachur Monu (congress leader) supported Mr. Ashraf even after being in the opposite party. After the election, Mr. K Ashraf and Mr. Shashidhara Hegde (current mayor) met with Mr. Ramanatha Rai who was leader of the opposite group. When Mr. Janardhana Poojari learned about the meeting and was guilty of his mistakes. He realized Mr. K Ashraf’s potential and leadership qualities and decided to be on good terms with him and acknowledge his power.  Mr. Janardhana Poojary convinced Mr. Ashraf and promised to support him. Mr. Ashraf stated that he is a part of the congress party, not a part of group.  In the year 2006, the rare opportunity came back again.  Mr. K. Ashraf stood for the mayor election and won as the Mayor.

In the meantime, Mr. K Ashraf was not willing to continue his chairman position.  Mr. K Ashraf showed immense support towards Mr. Ramanath Rai. After a while, Mr. Purandhara Das was declared as the mayor. Mr. K Ashraf had a very close relationship with Mr. Purandhara Das. He had worked very hard for the election since the mayor position was supposed to given to a female candidate. Mr. Purandhara das, Mr Kamala Salion and Mr. Kamala Kunder had a very strong and friendly relationship. They used to work together for every matter. There was a tikka restaurant near their corporation building which was quite popular during their time.  Mr. Purandharadas evacuated the restaurant.  This caused a misunderstanding between K. Ashraf and Mr. Purandharadas and decided to break their bond.

Social contributions

Mr. K. Ashraf is a man of social concern. In the year 1997, there was huge conflict in Suratkal which took away the lives of ten people.  He worked hard to resolve this major dispute forming a team consisting of Mr. U.T. Khader, Salam Puthige, Khader Haji, Haneef haji, Hameed Kudroli, D.M. Aslam, Raheem Uchil and many other members. The curfew was called upon and days were dark. He worked hard to resolve the issue.

Mr. K. Ashraf served as the wise president of central committee.  Muslim Sangadha Okkuta was a group who didn’t belong to any particular party. There was a dispute against the Jumah Prayer and in order to find a solution to this, the group was formed. If there is any injustice happening, the group would accumulate people and take specific measures to solve the problem. Mr. K. Ashraf was the founder of the Muslim Sangadha Okkuta (2013).   He worked for the group even when he was the congress block president.

He is the convener of Kandathpalli Juma Masjid and the wise president of Kendra Juma Masjid.  He is the wise president of ‘Zeenath Baksh’. He also serve as the wise president of the Azariya Madrassa Management.