Thiruvananthapuram: LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan neither denied nor confirmed the reported LDF move to counter the Muslim League by forming a new party called Indian Secular League under local self government minister K T Jaleel.
This is how the LDF convener responded to the report at a press conference here on Tuesday: “It is impossible to render the Muslim League, a religion-based party, secular. But it would be foolish for the LDF to take on the Muslim League by forming another religion-based party,” he said at a press conference here on Tuesday. He tried to sidestep the Secular League issue with a smile. There was no authoritative denial. But when the reporters were insistent, he said that K T Jaleel was an LDF independent and would remain so.
Nonetheless, Vijayaraghavan also said that it was important to bring new parties into the LDF fold. Already, there are 12 parties in the LDF. The strategy is to add more. But, in an apparent bid to prevent the LDF from growing into a loose collection of disparate parties, the CPM had wanted smaller parties within the combine to join together. Though the Kerala Congress factions of R Balakrishna Pillai and Skaria Thomas were asked to do so, the question of leadership has come in the way.
“The parties have only begun discussing the merger within their state committees,” Vijayaraghavan said. “The LDF will take up the merger issue only after these parties pass on the reports of the consultations they had within their respective parties,” he said.
Indian Secular League
Highly placed sources in the LDF said that the Indian Secular League proposal was mooted by the state leadership of National Secular Conference (NSC), an LDF constituent. The proposal was to bring four independent LDF MLAs (K T Jaleel, P V Anwar, P T A Rahim and Karat Razaq), and one MLA of NSC (V Abdurahiman), under the Indian Secular League umbrella. (Though Rahim is now NSC state president, he had contested as an LDF independent from Kunnamungalam in Kozhikode.)
The NSC proposal states that the new formation could effectively take on the Muslim League in its bastions in north Kerala. The gang of five, the proposal said, had stormed the Muslim League citadels like Tanur, Thavanur and Nilambur in Malappuram, and Koduvallay and Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode during the 2016 polls. The Indian National League, an LDF constituent, will also be part of the new formation as per the proposal.
Though he did not specifically commit to the Secular League proposal, the LDF convener said that many crucial discussions were going on within individual LDF constituents.
K M Mani back on CPM blacklist
The LDF convener did not see anything contradictory in his move to file a fresh petition in the Vigilance court with the plea that the Vigilance closure report in favour of K M Mani be rejected. The Vigilance closure report had exonerated the former finance minister.
When told that his petition would rebut the findings of the Vigilance headed by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Vijayaraghavan said: “I have not debunked anything. I was only asking for a further probe into the issue.” His predecessor Vaikom Viswan, who had filed a petition for a fresh probe during the UDF tenure, did not file any objections after the LDF came to power. Agriculture minister Sunil Kumar too had withdrawn his petition opposing the probe.
There was speculation that the CPM was trying to rope in a disgruntled Mani into the LDF fold. The move had failed and Mani is now back in the UDF fold. The new LDF convener's legal move suggests that the LDF has decided to rake up the issue once again.
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