THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Muslim Jamath Council state president A Pookunju and general secretary M Thajuddin have called upon the LDF and the UDF to provide six seats to Muslim candidates in the ensuing general election. He was speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the secretariat meeting of the Muslim Jamath.
The leaders said the fronts are treating the Muslim community, which has a numerical strength of 30 per cent of the state’s population, as a vote bank and are not given adequate representation. While 6 per cent of the 11 per cent numerically strong Nair community is with the BJP, the fronts are providing seats to the community in large numbers and to the 19 per cent strong Christian community also the fronts are providing seats in good numbers.
The leaders said 22 per cent of the Ezhava community is also given quite a number of seats in all the fronts. However, according to the Muslim Jamath leaders, the Muslim community is not being given proportionate representation. The leaders asked while the community is providing a large amount of money to the government coffers, ignoring the community members is not a good trend. Pookunju said Congress leaders Shanimol Usman, T Siddique and Youth Congress leader Niyas should be provided winnable seats. He also said the CPM and the Left front should also consider providing Muslim leaders in the party with good winnable seats.
The leaders asked as to why the Congress was reluctant to provide the Wayanad seat to Shanimol Usman who has been with the Congress since her student days. The leaders also said if the fronts are not considering these demands, the 13,000-strong Muslim Mahal Jamath committees will take appropriate action.
AICC survey The AICC leadership has conducted two rounds of surveys by commissioning two nationally important psephology groups to have a direct assessment of the grass root realities and this, along with the feedback from the KPCC president from his yatra experience and also from the Shakti programme, will seriously be taken into consideration before finalising the list.