Shameless Congress makes electoral pact with Popular Front terrorists

CPM, Cong still in company with Islamists
VR Jayaraj | Malappuram – Daily Pioneer

Despite open declarations that there would be no truck with Islamist forces in the civic polls due on October 23 and 25, Kerala’s CPI(M)-led ruling LDF and the Congress-headed Opposition UDF are determined to accept their support. Secret understandings between the two fronts and the Islamists in several areas have already been exposed.

The CPI(M), which had forged an open alliance with Bangalore bombings accused Abdul Naaser Madani’s PDP in the last Lok Sabha elections, has decided not to have any adjustments with that party as a policy matter this time. But understandings have already been arrived at between the two sides in many areas, especially in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district.

The Congress had time and again declared their decision not to ask for or accept the support of Islamist forces like the Popular Front of India (PFI, formerly NDF), the outfit behind the Taliban-model attack on a college professor. Ironically, deals between the Congress and the Popular Front are being exposed not by UDF’s enemies but its won constituent, the Muslim League.

Madani’s PDP, for its part, has so far been sincere in admitting the truth: According to its general secretary Subair Sakhafi, both the ruling and the Opposition fronts have sought their support. The PDP had supported the UDF in the 2001 Assembly polls but it moved towards the Left.

The CPI(M), which had even irked its LDF partners by being adamant on continuing with its pact with Madani’s party in the Lok Sabha election, had in the post-poll situation come to the conclusion that the alliance had not done the party or the LDF any good. The party decision for the civic polls was not to have any understanding with PDP.

However, CPI(M) workers in Malappuram district secretly admitted that the PDP sympathizers and activists would vote and work for LDF candidates in wards where that party would not have own candidates. “There is nothing wrong in this. It is just electoral cooperation. They feel we are friends of the minorities,” a CPI(M) activist said.

CPI(M)’s Malappuram district secretary Ummer Master categorically states that the party or the front has not so far held any discussions with the PDP. “There is no such move. We have not gone to them (PDP) nor have they come to us.,” says the leader.

But a Malappuram district committee member of the party said that the PDP would support the Left normally in the election. “A rigid State-wise policy is impractical in a panchayat election where local situations matter. Moreover, if the PDP wants to support anyone, it is naturally the CPI(M),” he said.

At the same time, the association between the Congress and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the Popular Front, has already created rifts in the UDF in several areas, for example Idukki district. This was not just an allegation but a statement of fact as it came from none other than TM Saleem, Idukki district president of the Muslim League, the second largest constituent of the UDF.

According to Saleem, the Congress party, which had forged a new alliance with the SDPI, was trying to dump the Muslim League in Idukki. It is said that the Congress was forced to strike a deal with the SDPI after large numbers of Muslim League workers opted out following the police raids on Muslim homes in the aftermath of the attack on Prof TJ Joseph.

The statement of the Muslim League leader had led to a crisis in the UDF in Idukki with the CPI(M) making a huge issue out of it forcing State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala to intervene. The League leader has now recanted his statement but the deal between the Congress and the SDPI is continuing unchanged, say Popular Front sources.

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