Kerala - Kochi   

`Jamaat help was critical'

Special Correspondent

Arifali says it was a vote against IUML's leadership

KOCHI: Jamaat-e-Islami State chief T. Arifali has said that his organisation's support proved critical to the victory of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in some of the constituencies where the victory margins were thin.

He told The Hindu that he did not want to make any tall claims about his organisation's unprecedented support to the LDF, but felt that it made `marginal but critical impact' on the results.

He said the Jamaat had very actively campaigned for the LDF, holding hundreds of meetings and calling innumerable meetings of families. The Jamaat cadre had voted en masse for the LDF.

In Mr. Arifalis's view, one of the lessons of the Assembly election was that Kerala's soil was not fertile enough for fascism. He said that `in spite of all the noise created by the BJP', it could not open its account in the Assembly. Another lesson was that Kerala voters were not for opportunistic politics. "Across the State, voters hunted down opportunistic politicians," he said.

Mr. Arifali said the Indian Union Muslim League's (IUML) debacle was expected and deserving. "It was a vote against the League leadership, not against the League," he said. Some League leaders had misused the Muslim community for their self interests and the community said no to this through the election, he said.

But, Mr. Arifali said, the League could bounce back if the leadership corrected its way and won back the community's trust.

Our Reporter adds from Kozhikode: Addressing a news conference here on Friday Mr. Arifali said that the victory of the LDF was the victory of the anti-imperialistic movement. It was the reflection of the wishes of the people.

He said the Jamaat was able to divert the discussion from communal politics to the stand taken by political parties on various issues. It made the organisation take a stern view against the development policies that were detrimental to mankind as well as the liberal attitude adopted towards imperialism, he said.

Mr. Arifali said that the people rejected the anti-people development agenda of the United Democratic Front (UDF) Government.

He said that the new Government should draw up people-oriented development schemes.

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