Kozhikode: The youth brigade in the Indian Union Muslim League, the second largest constituent in the United Democratic Front, is mounting pressure on the party leadership to pitch for a third seat to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
PK Kunhalikkutty (Malappuram) and ET Mohammed Basheer (Ponnani) are the IUML lawmakers from Kerala.
The youth brigade's grouse is that the IUML, despite being the second largest constituent in the UDF, had to be contended with two seats for too long.
The Congress, which has 22 MLAs, is contesting from 16 seats while with 18 legislators IUML contests only 2 seats, they point out.
IUML legislator from Manjeswaram PB Abdu Razak passed away recently and the seat is lying vacant.
Many youth wing leaders including Panakkad Mueen Ali Thangal, son of IUML supremo Hyderali Shihab Thangal, have expressed their demand publicly, but senior leaders are yet to respond on the issue.
Mueen Ali, also the Youth League's national vice president, had even posted on his Facebook page that there should be an end to the compromise made by the IUML.
The leadership should consider the feeling of the party workers and sympathisers rather than compromising on the seat sharing for Lok Sabha polls, Mueen Ali posted on Facebook.
“This is a genuine demand. Workers have been dreaming about it for long, but the leadership is not considering their demand. This attitude should change. Even if it is a seat with less winning chances like Kasaragod or Palakkad, we should welcome that,” he wrote.
After IUML leaders failed to acknowledge the demand, Samastha, a prominent Muslim organisation, made known its protest on the issue.
Samastha even wrote an editorial on the issue on its mouthpiece 'Suprabhatham' pointing out that
Mueen Ali's post was a reflection of the long-pending demand of the party workers.
Party workers said the dissent was more from the youngsters, who feel senior leaders were not taking up the issue in the UDF.
However, IUML state general secretary KPA Majeed avoided questions on the issue and said
allies have the freedom to raise their concerns, but only the most acceptable candidate would be chosen for a seat.
Youth League state secretary PK Firos, who called a press meet in Kozhikode on Thursday also avoided a direct reply to queries posed to him on the third seat.
“If eligibility is considered, Muslim League deserves more than three seats,” he said.
Dissenting IUML leaders also point out that the CPI, the second largest constituent in the LDF, gets to contest four seats.
They contend that the CPI's base is weaker vis-a-vis the IUML in the state.
Within IUML, it is only recently that leaders from the state got the chance to contest for LS polls.
Earlier, national leaders from outside the state used to contest as IUML candidates.
GM Banatwala was elected seven times from Ponnani and Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait, won four times from Manjeri twice from Kozhikode and once from Ponnani.
The IUML's assessment is that it has strong pockets of influence in Wayanad LS constituency that includes Bathery, Kalpetta and Mananthavady Assembly constituencies in Wayanad district, Thiruvambady in Kozhikode and Eranad, Nilambur and Wandoor constituencies in Malappuram district.
The Wayanad LS seat fall vacant following the demise of M.I.Shanavaz of the Congress last year. It is considered a safe seat for the UDF.
