Yet another Muslim MLA ditches CPM

CPM-backed MLA to quit in Kerala
VR Jayaraj | Malappuram – Daily Pioneer

Kerala’s CPI(M)-backed MLA Manjalamkuzhi Ali has announced his decision to resign from the Assembly seat in protest against the “kicks and blows” he has been receiving from the Marxist party leadership for the past several months.

Talking to newsmen on Monday at his residence at Panangangara near Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district, Ali said he would also quit all the official positions given to him by the party. Ali is MLA from the Mankada constituency in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district.

The decision of Ali, a popular leader and influential businessman in Malappuram district, is expected to cause serious upsets locally to the CPI(M) and the ruling LDF in the civic polls to be held later this month. The friction between Ali and the party had intensified over his approach to the local CPI(M) candidates in Mankada in the civic polls.

Ali made it clear that he would pursue his political career in Mankada constituency which he represented for two terms but added that he had not decided on joining the Opposition UDF. Opposition parties Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League invited him to join them immediately after his announcement.

“I was made a scapegoat of the divisionism in the CPI(M)” after he was stamped as a supporter of Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, he said. “I respect Achuthanandan and am indebted to him,” he said. The official CPI(M) leadership began to target him after he spoke in favour of their enemy Achuthanandan in a magazine interview sometime back.

“I am really sad and fed up with being attacked by senior CPI(M) leaders,” Ali said. He named CPI(M)’s central committee member A Vijayaraghavan, who had recently made a scathing attack against him, using bad phrases. “Those who have made crores of rupees from the business of politics should not criticize my business,” he said.

“Enough is enough,” Ali said at the Press conference. “I was being hunted by some leaders of the CPI(M) for no reason. I can’t kneel before them. Also, I can’t forget my commitment to the electorate that voted for me,” he said. “I will continue to be with the people of Mankada as an independent worker,” he said.

Aryadan Muhammad, senior Congress leader from Malappuram district, instantly invited Ali to the party while PK Kunhalikutty, general secretary of the Muslim League, sent a step further by saying he would meet Ali to invite him. State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala welcomed Ali’s decision to end his association with the CPI(M).

State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan refused to comment on Ali’s decision. “No comment. Just move off,” he told newsmen angrily when they insisted. Party’s central committee member and State Minister Paloli Muhammad Kutty said Ali’s resignation was irrelevant as there was no much time left for the end of the House’s tenure.

A reputed filmmaker with several hits to his credit, Ali was fielded as an Independent candidate in Mankada Assembly constituency in the 1996 election against Muslim League heavyweight KPA Majeed. Though Ali lost that election, he won in the next two rounds – in 2001 and 2006.

Ali is the third popular leader from the minorities sections in Kerala to leave the CPI(M) camp in less than two years. The party had expelled AP Abdullakutty of Kannur in March, 2009 for praising Narendra Modi and former MP KS Manoj of Alappuzha resigned from the party earlier this year protesting against its stipulations on atheism.

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