Even as the party is beset by severe internal problems, uncertainty appears to be looming over the crucial working committee meeting of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Kozhikode.
A 10-member sub-committee meeting, comprising State leaders and legislators to fix an agenda for the working committee meeting in Kozhikode on Saturday, was deferred for various reasons. Leaders attributed the inability of the legislators to turn up maintaining COVID-19 protocol as one of them.
In fact, the sub-committee was constituted last month in view of the beginning of the 20-day Assembly session on July 22. So far, the 100-member working committee, which is the highest-decision making body of the party, has not met to evaluate the Assembly poll results. The committee consists of State and district-level leaders and office-bearers of the party-affiliated organisations.
Sources said that the party leaders were delaying the meeting fearing criticism from members on various issues ranging from favouritism in the selection of candidates and poor performance in the polls, especially in Kozhikode and Kannur districts, and the shrinking vote share even in party strongholds in Malappuram district.
Doubtlessly, a senior party functionary said that the the IUML was the only party that had not reviewed the election results that gave a resounding victory of the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala for the second time.
Plausibly the powers that be in the party, including national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty—who recently returned to State politics—would be unable to effectively stonewall queries about the damaged electoral prospects of its coalition, the United Democratic Front, of which the party was a major constituent.
The deferment of the working committee meet also assumed significance against the backdrop of Syed Mueen Ali Shihab Thangal, the party’s State president Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal’s son, accusing Mr. Kunhalikutty of political hegemony and financial mismanagement of the party-owned Muslim Printing and Publishing Company that brings out the Chandrika daily.
The IUML, sources said, was still not out of the woods even though its leadership struggled to control the damage due to the unpredicted and unsavoury controversy of a Thangal scion coming out publicly against Mr. Kunhalikkutty. There may be more factionalism waiting to happen with growing disenchantment with the leadership, the sources said.
