Muslim league, the second biggest constituent of Kerala’s ruling UDF, on Monday decided to withdraw from the bilateral talks scheduled to be held with front leader Congress on Tuesday, deepening the crisis that has gripped the coalition following State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala’s scathing attack against that party on Saturday.
Stating that talks were irrelevant when the party’s continuance in the Congress-led UDF itself was in doubt, Muslim league’s national general secretary ET Muhammad Basheer said that the statement of Chennithala was provocative. “The atmosphere is not conducive for talks,” Basheer said even as UDF convener PP Thankachan chose to downplay the development.
The tough position, which the Muslim league has now adopted, has presented a big headache for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his Government which is already facing a huge crisis in the form of the infamous solar power scam involving his office, former aides, con woman Saritha S Nair and her fraudster ex-husband Biju Radhakrishnan.
Sources in the Muslim league said that the party was not in a mood to approach the Congress with any formula to resolve the crisis and that it was even thinking of boycotting all programmes associated with the UDF till a final decision was taken at Thursday’s crucial party secretariat meeting. league Ministers might boycott even Thursday’s Cabinet meet, they said.
“It is not certain whether the alliance would continue. The UDF belongs to all its constituents. It is up to the Muslim league and the Congress to decide whether we should continue with the alliance,” Basheer said. The league leadership has already conveyed its protests over Chenntihala’s attack to the Congress high command.
Under the garb of quoting former KPCC chief CK Govindan Nair (CKG), Chennithala said in Kozhikode on Saturday that succumbing to pressures of communal and community organisations - like the Muslim league - would become a liability for the Congress. He also referred to the CKG theory that the league would play pressure tactics to get more benefits from Congress.
However, Chennithala offered a denial following the Muslim league’s immediate and furious protests against his statement. On Monday, Basheer said that Chennithala’s “correction” to his statement was not convincing or satisfactory and that there would be no talks with the Congress until a solution to the problems was found.
The Muslim league is already convinced that Chennithala had targeted it due to the support it was extending to Chief Minister Chandy, leader of the ‘A’ group in the Congress and arch enemy of the PCC chief, in the context of the Opposition demand for his resignation over the solar power scam.
“We are not ready to be part of any move to unseat the Chief Minister. It is our duty to support him. Otherwise we would be viewed as a party of betrayers which we are not,” Basheer said. Senior league leader KPA Majeed warned the Congress’s ‘I’ group against thinking that his party had no place else to go if it left the UDF.