KOZHIKODE: Over the past few months, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has been in an enviable, exalted position in Kerala politics. Even political adversaries, who often fired innuendos and branded the party communal, have been reeling out encomiums attesting its secular credentials of late.
A case in point is the CPM. Having once doubted the IUML’s commitment to secularism, the party is now rolling out the red carpet for it.
Its senior leaders, including state secretary M V Govindan and LDF convener E P Jayarajan, have had no qualms extolling the IUML’s strength and vitality, gleefully forgetting the fact that its an opposition party.
The CPM went on to even invite the IUML for the rallies it organised on the issues such as the Uniform Civil Code. The IUML leaders, meanwhile, were amused by the CPM’s frustration over the League ‘feeling suffocated’ in the UDF.
There was some reciprocation to the unexpected attention, too, mainly from League national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty, who has many friends in the CPM. So, even as the IUML maintained that it was an integral part of the UDF, signals emanating from the party at regular intervals kept political observers guessing.
For instance, Kunhalikutty told a vernacular daily last month that the League would sever ties with the Congress only if “big things happen”. He, however, stopped short of elaboration on what he meant by ‘big things’.
Sources say there are many within the party who are irked by Kunhalikutty’s hobnobbing with the CPM, even while continuing in the UDF. Former state secretary K S Hamsa, who was ousted from the League last year, had once exploded at a party meeting, demanding that Kunhalikutty should clarify whether the party was with the UDF or LDF. It may be a paradox that Hamsa is now the LDF candidate in Ponnani.
Several IUML leaders such as M K Muneer and K M Shaji have been using all the ammo in their arsenal to torpedo Kunhalikutty’s manouevres to park the party in the CPM camp.
Their attempts to portray the CPM as an ‘anti-Muslim’ dispensation did pay some dividend, and a large majority of the IUML cadre remain steadfast against any dalliance with the Left.
Meanwhile, the Congress strived to keep the League in good humour. Its leaders competed with one another to laud the IUML’s integrity and its commitment to the UDF.
The Congress did not yield an additional seat to the party, but placated it by offering the Rajya Sabha seat. It is not sure whether the IUML leadership actually wanted a third seat, or was flexing its muscles to calm down its cadre, who believed that the party deserved a better deal from the Congress.
Now, the real threat for the IUML in the upcoming elections will not be from its political foes, but from its own traditional vote bank. The gravity of the challenge posed by a section in the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama is yet to be fully gauged. The issue has grown from mere ‘internal bickering’ to something that can have a disastrous effect at the hustings.
Apparently, the CPM picked Hamsa, who is close to Samastha, as its Ponnani candidate to exploit the strong anti-League sentiments among a section of Sunni organisations. And the League has reasons to be worried.
Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, who took over the reins of the League after the demise of Syed Hyder Ali Shihab Thangal in 2022, has a lot to prove in this election.
There is already a challenge to the relatively young leader’s position as the religious head of the community, a position his predecessors handled with ease. Though hailed as Syedul Umma (leader of the community), there is a feeling that he gets eclipsed by Samastha president Syed Muhamamd Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal.
Sadiq Ali Thangal is the qazi of several ‘mahals’ and has recently set up the Panakkad Qazi Foundation to strengthen his religious authority. A good performance in the election is a must for Sadiq Ali Thangal to assert his position in the political field.
The party has settled the problems with the former leaders of Haritha (League’s female student wing), but the issues with Samastha seem deeper and more complicated.