Malappuram: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has landed in a dilemma in deciding to attend the pro-Palestine rally organised by CPM at Kozhikode on November 11. On Thursday, the party senior leader E T Mohammed Basheer expressed interest in attending the rally which is organised in solidarity with Palestine.

" There is nothing wrong with sharing a stage with CPM in the Palestine issue as it is a concern of humanity," he said.

 However, the KPCC President K Sudhakaran has opined that UDF has commonly decided not to share any stages with CPM. S, deciding on the official invitation of CPM has become a political dilemma for IUML.

The discussion of participating in CPM's pro-Palestine rally was initiated when E T Mohammed Basheer expressed interest in attending the rally if CPM invited them officially. CPM has not wasted any time responding to ET and the party Kozhikode Secretary P Mohanan officially invited IUML to the rally over the phone on Thursday itself. IUML State General Secretary PMA Salam confirmed that they have received the invitation and a decision would be taken after holding talks with the party members on Saturday.

“The invitation is for a common cause and it is not a political stage sharing with CPM. ET is one of the senior leaders of the party and IUML would consider his opinion seriously and would discuss it on Saturday's meeting”, PMA Salam said.

There is no need to discuss within UDF to decide to attend a gathering on an international issue, he added.  

Meanwhile, CPM is confident that IUML will attend the gathering. They are also having the opinion that there is no political agenda in sharing stages on such global matters.

“We believe IUML would accept our invitation. I have personally called PMA Salam after ET expressed interest in the event. It is a humanitarian issue and IUML and CPM are sharing the same concerns and ideologies in the Israel-Palestine conflict. So we expect IUML would decide in favour of our invitation”, CPM Kozhikode District Secretary P Mohanan told Onmanorama.

However, IUML has to overcome the pressure from the Congress party to make a favourable decision to CPM.  If IUML attended the meeting irking the congress leadership it would eventually lead to some repulsions with the UDF at least in the strongholds of IUML.