THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Expelled Congress leader A P Abdullakutty met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday raising speculation that he would join the saffron outfit. He told media persons that the Prime Minister has asked him to join the BJP.
If he joins the BJP, he will be becoming a member of the third mainstream political party. He commenced his political carrier as an activist of the SFI, the student organisation of the CPM.
He went on to become the MP from Kannur on a CPM ticket ending the winning spree of the present KPCC president, Mullappally Ramachandran, in 1999. He was relected in 2004.
A P Abdullakutty was expelled from the CPM in 2009 after he eulogised Narendra Modi and his development activities as the Chief Minister of Gujarat then.
Abdullakutty was given a red carpet welcome by the Congress and Kannur strongman K Sudhakaran went out of the way to protect him. He was given a Congress ticket to contest from the Kannur assembly constituency in the by-election held in November 2009 which he won. He again contested in 2009 assembly elections from Kannur and won. He, however, lost to A N Shamseer of the CPM in 2016 from the Thalassery assembly constituency -- a Left bastion. After this, the relationship between Abdullakutty and the Congress soured.
With the Prime Minister directly inviting him to join the BJP, the political fortunes of Abdullakutty are likely to take a turn for the better. Political pundits are expecting the BJP to field him from the Manjeswaram assembly constituency in the coming byelection where BJP candidate K Surendran lost by a margin of just 89 votes in the 2016 elections. With a Muslim leader contesting, the party is expecting to win the seat as there is a large population of Muslim community in the constituency of which the party can expect at least a small number of votes which can make a big difference.
BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai said, “We are welcoming Abdullakutty to the BJP fold. I can’t comment on what post he will be given nor whether he will contest in a byelection. This is for the party to decide.” The Congress leadership is stumped by his move and KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran told Express, “I am not at all amused at Abdullakutty joining the BJP. He is an opportunist and turncoat who will go to any extent for the sake of power. From a Left student activist, he has landed up in a blatantly communal outfit. I can vouch that he will be a political liability for the BJP in the long run.”