Muslim league, the second-biggest constituent of Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF, has begun showing signs of relenting on its position that the civic polls, due in October, should be held on the basis of the latest delimitation of wards, which had allegedly been carried out to suit its interests and which a single-judge Bench of the High Court had found to be flawed.
The party, which holds all the portfolios related to local administration, is still unclear about the stand it should take if the appeal the Government had filed on Wednesday in a Division Bench of the High Court against the single-judge Bench’s order fails. However, it is almost certain that it will not insist on approaching the Supreme Court if the High Court rejects the appeal.
The Government, allegedly under pressure from the Muslim league, is examining all options available to it to somehow circumvent the State Election Commission’s proposal to hold the civic polls on the basis of the ward structure that existed in 2010 and not the faulty delimited ward structure. The poll panel is also firm that the election should be held in October itself.
In a huge setback to the Muslim league and the UDF regime, the single-judge Bench of Justice AV Ramakrishna Pillai had on August 10 nullified the formation of 69 new panchayats pointing out that the delimitation was carried out by splitting Revenue villages which was a violation of the Panchayati Raj law.
“We have to think about the course of action to be pursued if the verdict of the division Bench on the appeal goes against the Government’s interests. There are various options and a decision will be taken after examining the legal issues involved,” Muslim league’s Panchayat Affairs Minister MK Muneer said in Kozhikode the other day.
The party leadership, which had thus far been holding that the civic polls should be held on the basis of delimitation even if it delayed the election, also showed signs of relenting. State general secretary KPA Majeed said his party was firm that the civic polls should be held in time and that the new governing councils should come into being by November 1.
Muneer admitted that the Government might have to think of agreeing to making the 2010 ward structure the basis for the polls if the appeal in the High Court failed.