KOZHIKODE: Dissidents in the IUML have come together under the banner of Hyder Ali Thangal Foundation under the leadership of Thangal’s son and Muslim Youth League national vice-president Panakkad Syed Mueen Ali Shihab Thangal. K S Hamza, former state secretary of the IUML, who has been kept under suspension for violating party discipline, has been elected as the convener of the Foundation while Mueen Ali is the chairman.
Though Mueen Ali Thangal and Hamza claimed that there is no political significance for the development and said it is only a coming together of those who love Hyder Ali Thangal, the move is clearly aimed at IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
Mueen Ali Thangal has openly raised voice against Kunhalikutty over the issues faced by the party organ Chandrika daily. At a press conference in Kozhikode in August last year, he stated that Kunhalikutty cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for leading the daily to a crisis. Unruly scenes had taken place during the conference when Kunhalikutty’s supporter Rafi Puthiyakadavu hurled abuses at Thangal. The issue was settled after the party took action against Rafi.
Hamza has been raising allegations against Kunhalikutty for some time now. He was very vocal at the party working committee meeting held and was suspended for ‘leaking’ the details of the internal debates in the party. Former MSF leaders Latheef Thurayur and P P Shyjak, who were ousted from the organisation in the aftermath of the issues related to the Haritha, MSF women’s wing, also participated.
Hamza also maintained that the meeting is not that of the rebels in the party and the Foundation was formed for giving vocation training for the youth. The move against Kunhalikutty is having an organisational form for the first time in the recent past.