He looks you in the eye when he talks, making one doubt whether it is the same man who was embroiled in sex scandals. P K Kunhalikutty, the undisputed leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) rarely raises his voice. When he does, the fingers of his left hand keep moving as he speaks. Days before Sonia Gandhi's arrival in Kerala last week, the fair, lean Kunhalikutty temporarily forgot he was a dominant partner in the UDF—as he has done many times before and is likely to do in the future—and threatened to go solo. “The IUML is not a political force content with the ‘scraps thrown’ at it by those in power,” he declared. He was launching the IUML election campaign in North Kerala. His stick and carrot policy was evident when he embraced KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala in public, sending signals that he was very much with the Congress; though Chennithala is no Chandy lover.
IUML demands one more seat for 2014—Wayanad or Kozhikkode, pushing the Congress to the wall. It demands the bifurcation of Malappuram district ‘for administrative convenience’. IUML represents 12 of the 16 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies in the Muslim majority district.
Kunhalikutty's strengthens the IUML by using the Congress. It was he who got IUML the fifth cabinet berth by pressuring the Congress through party leaders as he acted the trouble shooter. “The Muslim League has the bargaining power which they use properly,” said R Balakrishna Pillai, Chairman of Kerala Congress (B).
Both Kunhalikutty and his party are survivors. The ice cream parlour sex scandal case could have finished both politically but they bounced back. The Supreme Court quashed the case in 2006 citing lack of evidence. It is a matter of unexpressed distress in the IUML top leadership that party workers adore Kunhalikuty more than the ‘Thangal family’, the IUML’s ceremonial heads. He commands more clout than veterans like E Ahamed the Union minister of State for External Affairs and E T Muhammed Basheer, IUML national secretary. “He knows whom to support and how to benefit from political relations,” says Popular Front president state president Ashraf Moulavi. Kunhalikutty doesn't spare his enemies; the directive to legalise underage marriages of Muslim girls embarrassed social justice Muneer, who incidentally had exposed Kunhalikutty’s role in the Ice Cream Parlour sex scandal.
Both Kunhalikutty and IUML use religion for political means. Ministers have declined to light the traditional Kerala lamp at official ceremonies allegedly calling it a Hindu tradition. Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb demanded his official residence be changed from ‘Ganga’ to ‘Grace’. The Education Department asked women teachers to wear green blouses at official functions. The IUMl and its leader have gained clout through communal politics.