THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When Muslim League national general secretary and MLA PK Kunhalikutty faced allegations from former minister K T Jaleel of mishandling the party mouthpiece’s funds and his arm-twisting tactics to put down his opponents in the party last week, the state Congress and UDF leadership was not much worried.
However, ever since Kunhalikutty was cornered in the party, especially with Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal’s son Moyin Ali himself raising the same allegations, the Congress leadership has realised that the crisis in the ally is not going to be over anytime soon.
Kunhalikutty came to the assembly on Monday unperturbed and made a speech before the Opposition staged a walkout. Kunhalikutty had rushed to Malappuram on Friday after Moyin Ali’s public outburst at a media conference for the high-level IUML meeting which was also attended by members of the Thangal family.
Ever since Kunhalikutty decided to return to the state politics after relinquishing his Malappuram Lok Sabha seat, a section within the League has been unhappy. The 70-year-old leader who had weathered many a storm in his 41-year-old political career had blamed the previous state Congress leadership for the UDF’s assembly election debacle. He was upset with the rampant factionalism in the Congress, which he brought to the notice of the leading ally’s high command. Now, the tables have turned and the state Congress leadership is keenly watching the developments in the League.
“Though League leaders like MLA Dr M K Muneer and K M Shaji had cautioned against the party turning into individual centric, they did not turn their ire on Kunhalikutty. On Monday, Kunhalikutty was cool in the assembly. Though he had blamed factionalism in the Congress as one of the reasons for the dismal failure in the assembly elections, the party will not reply in the same coin,” a senior Congress MLA told TNIE.State Congress president K Sudhakaran and Opposition leader V D Satheesan were huddled with senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy at Indira Bhavan on Monday evening.
Though the meeting was mainly to discuss the party organisational revamp, the issues in the Muslim League were also discussed. Sudhakaran was scheduled to leave for New Delhi on Monday, but with the second round of deliberations not yet over with Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, the trip was postponed to Wednesday. With UDF convener M M Hassan getting the nod to continue in office, the UDF meeting is also expected to be called after the assembly session concludes on Friday. The Kunhalikutty issue will be taken up at the meeting.