The Hindu : Kerala News : IUML to discuss defeat at Manjeri

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 30, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

IUML to discuss defeat at Manjeri

By Biju Govind

KOZHIKODE, MAY 29. The humiliating defeat of its candidate in the Manjeri Lok Sabha constituency will be main agenda of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) State secretariat meeting at the League House here tomorrow.

Senior party functionaries told The Hindu here today that the 17-member secretariat will also discuss the outcome of the general elections in the State. Some of the vital issues concerning the UDF Government besides the general performance of the IUML Ministers will also come up for discussions at the one-day meeting.

The IUML State president, Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed, the Ministers, P. K. Kunhalikutty, M. K. Muneer, Cherkalam Abdulla and Nalakath Soopy, among others will take part in the meeting. The IUML national president, G. M. Banatwala, is unlikely to attend the meeting.

Sources said that the party had also taken a serious note of the campaign against the inclusion of Mr. Ahamed in the Ministry of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre. Both the State-level leadership of the BJP and the CPI (M) had come out openly against making Mr. Ahamed a Minister at the Centre.

It is also learnt that the working committee of the party would meet on May 31. But a final decision on convening a working committee meeting will only be taken tomorrow. The State leadership has second thoughts on holding a working committee meeting because it fears that the 98-member working committee would attack the State leadership for its failure to address the problems of the party workers.

While the secretariat meeting would be a tame affair of senior leaders and Ministers discussing general issues, the working committee meeting would witness hot debates by the middle-rung leaders on the decline of the party even in its heartland — Malappuram.

According to a senior leader, the party cadres attribute the Manjeri debacle to the resentment of the Muslim community against the IUML leadership. The State-level leadership saved its face by issuing statements that the Congress' internal bickering and the alleged anti-minority statements by the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, led to the defeat of its candidate in the Manjeri constituency.

However, the party cadres are not ready to buy these theories. They strongly believe that the wrong policies of the party led to the shocking defeat of K.P.A. Majeed at Manjeri.

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