Kasaragod: It's not just MPs and MLAs. The Congress is finding it hard to hold on to even its grama panchayat members from crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In Kasaragod's Paivalike Grama Panchayat, the Congress's lone member Avinash Machado (41) voted in favour of the no-confidence motion brought in by the BJP against the CPM's panchayat president Jayanthi K.
Yet, the motion failed because the BJP could not get the support of the two members of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), who voted against the motion.
Post the voting, the Congress's Kasaragod district president P K Faisal suspended Machado from the primary membership of the party, in what could only be seen as a damage control exercise in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. Machado continues to be a panchayat member.
After the local body election in December 2020, the BJP and the LDF won eight seats each in the 19-member board of Paivalike Grama panchayat. The United Democratic Front's IUML won two seats, and the Congress won one.
A coin was tossed to break the tie between the LDF and the BJP, as the UDF abstained from voting to elect the President and the Vice-President. Luck favoured the LDF as CPM's Jayanti K became the president, and BJP's Pushpalakshmi N became the Vice-President.
On Monday, March 25, the eight members of the BJP introduced a no-confidence motion against the Panchayat President Jayanti. They cited the panchayat not having a secretary as a reason to bring in the motion.
The no-confidence motion was bound to fail because the BJP needed at least 10 votes (more than half of the total members) to topple Jayanti, said IUML's member Zulfikar Ali B. "The UDF decided on Sunday (March 24) to abstain from voting. But on Monday, when Avinash cast his vote, our party directed us to vote against the motion. It is an election season and the UDF cannot be seen as voting with the BJP," he said.
So, IUML's Zulfikar and Siyasunneesa voted in favour of the LDF. "Our votes did not help the LDF but it was cast to prevent sending out a wrong message that UDF voted for BJP," said Zulfikar.
He, however, said that Machado acted on his own and did not have the backing of the Congress. District Congress President Faisal's press release suspending Machado attests that. But in an election season, when the CPM is leaving no stone unturned to woo the Muslim vote in Kerala, accusing the Congress MPs and leaders of doing little to protect the rights of the minorities, the Paivalike fiasco becomes another tool in the hands of the LDF's poll managers.
