The doctor who has shifted to Jaipur "before I am implicated in another case and put in jail" has been getting feelers from some opposition parties. He has, however, shown an inclination towards the Congress.

 

"During the tough times, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra supported me. She even spoke to me on the phone after my release from the Mathura jail," he said.

 

Khan has chosen to find refuge in Rajasthan, a Congress-ruled state.

 

Former Congress Legislature Party leader, Pradeep Mathur, who was present at the jail when Kafeel was released, said, "On the direction of senior party leaders, I was in regular touch with the district administrations of Mathura and Aligarh to complete formalities for the release of Kafeel. I escorted him to the Rajasthan border as well."

 

The Congress leader said, "Priyanka had raised her voice in his support for the sake of humanity and to oppose the atrocities committed by the Yogi government on innocent people in Uttar Pradesh. It's for Kafeel to decide if he wishes to work for the Congress."

 

The doctor has already announced that he will visit Bihar, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to organise a health camp in the flood-hit areas.

 

A senior Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said Kafeel had potential to become the Muslim face of the party in the crucial 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, for which the party is working to regain the lost ground.

 

"His constant battle against the state government and his victimisation has earned him a large support base among his community members in Uttar Pradesh as well as in other states," he said.

 

Meanwhile, a family source said that Kafeel had suffered enough in the past three years and, perhaps, the only way left for him was to join politics.

 

"There are offers from various parties, but he will decide which one to join. It will probably be the Congress, which has a pan-India presence," the family member said.

 

Dr. Kafeel Khan was first arrested in August 2017, following the oxygen tragedy in the B. R. D. Medical College, Gorakhpur in which about 70 children had died over three days.

 

The departmental inquiry gave him a clean chit later, but Khan has not been reinstated yet.