The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was left red-faced on Friday following the release of a video footage in the visual media showing the party’s top leaders P.K. Kunhalikutty and E.T. Mohammed Basheer rendezvousing with the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
Both Mr. Kunhalikutty and Mr. Basheer denied the allegations that the IUML was accosting the SDPI. “We have nothing to do with the SDPI. We have not made any electoral discussions with them. And we will not make in future,” Mr. Kunhalikutty said on Friday.
Rules out ties
Mr. Basheer too said that it was an accidental meeting at a hotel owned by the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) at Kondotty. “It was never a planned meeting,” he said.
IUML State general secretary K.P.A. Majeed said the party could never work with the SDPI, Popular Front or National Democratic Front as it could not gel with these parties politically.
Brief meeting
SDPI leaders, meanwhile, said that they had a brief meeting with the two IUML candidates at Hotel Tamarind, and that their help was sought in the elections.
P.V. Anvar, MLA, who is taking on Mr. Basheer in Ponnani as a LDF-backed independent, lashed out at the IUML for the meeting with SDPI leaders. “Neither the IUML nor its leaders have integrity. They are cheating the people by putting on a mask of secularism,” said Mr. Anvar.