Just a week after the Indian Union Muslim League hosted the top brass of its ally DMK for an iftar party in Chennai, a splinter group of the party’s state unit hosted two ministers of the AIADMK government for a similar function. The iftar party was organised by Fathima Muzaffer, who had fallen out with her party organisation over compromises in seat-sharing talks ahead of the 2011 Assembly elections.
The iftar party saw the participation of Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme Minister B Valarmathi and Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Minister S Abdul Rahim. The event took place at the same hall in Egmore where the IUML hosted DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, his son M K Stalin and other leaders on June 25.
“They came and sat here, and their leader gave a speech appealing for unity among Muslims. That was ironic, for they were the very people who caused the split in our party,” said Fathima, lashing out at the DMK. She had to start a splinter group of the IUML after being sidelined for addressing a press conference ahead of the 2011 Assembly polls, where she had hit out at both her party organisation for making compromises and the DMK for taking the IUML for granted.
Fathima, then the organiser of the party’s women’s wing, had objected strongly after the DMK had reduced the IUML’s share in seat sharing from three to two, under the pretext of setting aside a whopping 53 seats for the Congress. Following the uproar, DMK had restored IUML’s share. But by then she had been edged out of her party.
‘Name Misused’
The IUML state unit has strongly objected to the use of the party’s name at an iftar party organised by its former women’s wing organiser Fathima Muzaffer.
State general secretary KAM Muhammed Abu Backer said he had personally met Chennai Police Commissioner S George and other high-ranking police officials to complain that his party’s name was being misused.
“She is not in our party anymore. She has no right to misuse the party’s name. The Election Commission has also said this. She is doing this for personal gain,” Abu Backer told Express Fathima had been edged out of the IUML after raising strong objection to the seat allocations in the pre-poll alliance with the DMK ahead of the 2011 Assembly election.