Shaffi was an active member of Indian National Congress Party since 1988 till 2013. He has since stepped out of politics to focus on entrepreneurship, legal profession and academics.

He worked in National (Kerala) Students Union from 1985 to 1990 as a student in Mahatma Gandhi University (1985-87 in Sacred Heart College, Cochin, India and 1987-90 in St. Paul's College, Cochin, India).

He served as the 'Economic Advisor to the Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala' Mr. Oommen Chandy during 2012-13. He believes and the Hon. Chief Minister concurs that he contributed very effectively to the work of the Hon. Chief Minister especially the efforts in changing the perception about Kerala being an unfriendly investment state. Shaffi was also a key supporter of Startup Village, Cochin which was being developed as the largest tech incubator in India. (Startup Village is a technology business incubator in Kochi and it is India's first incubator that is funded jointly by the public and private sector. The promoters of Startup Village are Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Technopark Trivandrum and MobME Wireless. Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and the most successful IT entrepreneur from Kerala, is the chief mentor at Startup Village.)

Unfortunately, in mid 2013, Shaffi was caught in the middle of political crossfire of baseless mud slinging targeting the Chief Minister of Kerala and resigned from office when his brother and sister in law complained to the Chief Minister about Shaffi misusing office to harass them consequent to a family dispute his brother was having with his father and mother.

Shaffi requested the Chief Minister to do a thorough enquiry which cleared him fully of the allegations made by his brother and sister in law but few vested interests politicians who wanted to unseat the Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala Mr. Oommen Chandy used Shaffi's resignation made on his high moral values to target Shaffi with baseless and nonsensical allegations and consequently the Hon. Chief Minister in the hope that this will put pressure on the Hon. Chief Minister to resign. Shaffi responded with legal notices to the allegations and is presently pursuing legal challenges against the allegations to establish his integrity beyond any doubt.

Shaffi took up the responsibility of public office in his home state Kerala with the hope that his background and international network will contribute to the growth of the state. His biggest success in this role was in persuading the World Economic Forum to host a Retreat in Cochin in November, 2013 which unfortunately got cancelled post his resignation.

He has worked as Advisor in several policies formulation groups both at the State and National level in Indian National Congress. He has worked closely with Mr. Sam Pitroda, Mr. Veerappa Moily, Mr. Vayalar Ravi, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Mr. Salman Khursheed, Mr. Oommen Chandy, Mr. Mukul Wasnik and several other National and State Leaders of Indian National Congress.

Due to his work with Indian National Congress, one political leader from the opposing political camp at the national level who is known for his blackmail politics made yet another round of baseless allegations against Shaffi and the company he founded Ziqitza Health Care Limited. The company issued legal notices against these allegations and has legally challenged these allegations and is presently pursuing the legal challenges against the allegations to establish the company's / his integrity beyond any doubt.

He was also a member of AICC Election War Room in the 2004 General Election volunteering under the leadership of Mr. Jairam Ramesh and Mr. Salman Khursheed. He was also a key volunteer in the Election Management Teams of Indian National Congress in Maharashtra Elections (2004 & 2009), Kerala (2006) and Uttar Pradesh (2007) State Legislature Elections.

Shaffi volunteered closely with Mr. Oommen Chandy during his term as the Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala (2005-06) and was responsible for projecting Kerala in the National and International Arena including the World Economic Forum Davos Meet 2006 and the India Economic Summit New Delhi 2005 to showcase the development efforts and investor friendly steps undertaken by the Government of Kerala (during Mr. Chandy's Chief Ministership).

Shaffi facilitated a Panel exclusively on Kerala's Development and Political Opposition's strategy at the India Economic Summit New Delhi 2009 where Mr. Oommen Chandy (then Hon. Leader of Opposition), Mr. Ramesh Chennithala (then KPCC President), Mr. K V Thomas (then Hon. Minister of State for Agriculture, Govt of India and Mr. Sashi Tharoor, then Hon. Min of State for External Affairs, Govt of India) spoke on the development plans for Kerala of Congress party in Kerala and also of how the ideal political opposition strategy should be.

He also volunteered (full time) in the office of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, one of the General Secretaries of Indian National Congress from July 2008 to July 2009.

Shaffi has written several articles focussed on development policy in the malayalam Veekshanam Daily (Malayalam Newspaper), the official newspaper of Indian National Congress (Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee) in Kerala.

Shaffi's volunteering work in Indian National Congress has been mostly focused in policy formulation and preparing policy notes for the Congress party leadership at multiple levels. Shaffi was appointed as the Convenor of the Economic Policy and Planning Committee of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on 28th July, 2010 under the leadership of Mr. Oommen Chandy (Leader of Opposition Kerala and Congress Parliamentary Party Leader, Kerala) and Mr. Ramesh Chennithala, (President, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee) bringing together leading economic and public policy thinkers including former members of the Kerala Planning Board to develop a broad framework of economic policies and politically acceptable and speedily implementable projects in Kerala with special emphasis for the benefit of the underprivileged and the common man.

Shaffi is from a traditional 4th generation Congress family. Shaffi's father has been a member of the KPCC Executive for several years. His paternal grandfather K C M Mather was the KPCC Treasurer and his maternal grandfather T O Bava was the KPCC President in the 60's. Shaffi's mother Safiya Mather has been a committed Congress party worker all her life.