THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress MP K Muraleedharan has come out against the promise made by the LDF Government just before the assembly elections to include Nadars in Christian denominations in the OBC list.Muraleedharan, who lost from Nemom assembly constituency owing to the community’s support to CPM’s V Sivankutty, accused Pinarayi of giving false hope to the Christian Nadar group just before the elections. He said various Christian communities have now learnt a lesson for ditching UDF in the poll.
His comments came a couple of days after the High Court stayed the government’s order to include the Christian Nadar group in the list of socially and educationally backward classes to provide employment and educational benefits to its members. The government is expected to file an appeal against the single judge’s order.
Muraleedharan, the campaign committee chairman of the Congress in the state, knows fully well the influence of the Nadar community, which has a sizeable strength in Thiruvananthapuram district. Muraleedharan represented Vattiyoorkavu constituency for eight years but lost to LDF in Nemom, getting only 4,000 of the total 10,000 Nadar votes.
Most Nadar votes are concentrated in the district’s Parassala, Kattakada, Neyyattinkara, Kovalam, Nemom and Vattiyoorkavu constituencies and are crucial in every election. In the capital district, UDF could win only one seat out 14 – Kovalam, which was retained by M Vincent due to consolidation of Latin Catholic votes.
Though it was the Congress which always benefited from consolidation of Nadar votes, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s announcement to include the group in the OBC list as per the recommendation of the Kerala State Commission for Backward Classes, helped LDF get the crucial votes.
“Former chief minister Oommen Chandy too had decided to grant OBC reservation to the Christian Nadar community in 2015. However, the then law secretary advised against this, saying it won’t stand if someone approaches the court,” Muraleedharan told TNIE.
“Hence, the UDF Government could not implement it. However, a clever Pinarayi gave false hopes to the community just before the elections and came to power. Now, various Christian communities have learnt a hard lesson for ditching UDF,” he said.
At present, the South Indian United Church (SIUC) and Hindu Nadar communities have OBC reservation which grants them educational and job-related benefits. Pinarayi wanted to extend this to the Christian Nadar community without affecting the quota of Hindu Nadar and SIUC Christian Nadar segments.