Ahmed's departure could mark the beginning of an exodus of Congressmen who had joined the BJP on election eve. Ahmed is likely to be followed by Aslam Sher Khan, another prominent Muslim leader and former Congress Union minister who had also joined the BJP at the same time. Khan had written a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last week accusing the BJP of going back on its promise in the national agenda to look after Muslim interests.

Khan said today that he had no plans to leave the BJP ``for now''. ``I am with the party and will work to see that it meets its commitments. The party will have to take the issues I have raised seriously,'' hetold The Indian Express

. However, sources said that Khan shared Ahmed's sentiments.

Ahmed said: ``All Congressmen (who are now in the BJP) are feeling humiliated and betrayed. We had responded to the BJP's call to break the wall of hatred and give it a chance. But after coming to power the BJP changed colour. To remain silent would amount to an endorsement of the BJP's activities.'' Nearly 50 Congressmen had joined the BJP.

Echoing Aslam Sher Khan's letter to the PM, Ahmed said in his resignation letter that Muslims had been given negligible representation in BJP-ruled states and at the Centre.

Asked if he would go back to the Congress, Ahmed did not deny the possibility and praised Sonia Gandhi. The credibility of the Congress had been restored after she took over, particularly because of the way she was working for Muslims, backwards and Dalits, he said.

In his resignation letter to BJP president Kushabhau Thakre, Ahmed criticised the BJP for the targeting and coercion of Muslims in BJP-ruledstates like Gujarat. In Maharashtra and other states there was a planned conspiracy to expel them under the guise of evicting Bangladeshi immigrants, he said.

Ahmed also alleged the dominance of the RSS in government decisions, focussing on the meetings of RSS chief Rajendra Singh with senior government officers and BJP MPs. ``It is now proved that Vajpayee is only a mukhota

(mask) as said by K N Govindacharya (BJP general secretary) during the last polls,'' he said in his letter, copies of which were sent to the PM and L K Advani.

He added that it was impossible for a secular and nationalist person to continue in BJP after seeing the behaviour of the BJP government and its senior leaders. ``Government machinery is being misused in BJP-ruled states to delete the names of Muslims from voter lists. There is a planned conspiracy going on against mosques and Muslim schools in western Rajasthan by blaming these as anti-national places,'' he alleged.