Kerala - Kollam   

IUML severs ties with UDF in Kollam

KOLLAM: Following a showdown with the district leadership of the Congress, the district unit of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has severed ties with the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kollam.

The showdown stemmed from a dispute over elections to the director board of the Congress-controlled Kollurvila Service Cooperative Bank on October 12. As a result, the IUML did not join the October 16 UDF protest demonstration in the district against the October 17 dharna by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his Cabinet colleagues in Delhi.

The district unit of the IUML also decided to boycott the district-level Jana Sadas organised here by the UDF on November 1, a programme to be inaugurated by KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala.

The IUML sources said the showdown pertained to the Congress going back on its word to accommodate an IUML representative on the director board of the bank. It was a quid pro quo arrangement. In the October 2005 elections to the Kollam Corporation, there was an adjustment between the Congress and the IUML.

Following a request from the then district leadership of the Congress, the IUML decided not to field a candidate at the Kollurvila division and instead supported Congress leader Anzar Aziz as the UDF candidate. For that gesture, the IUML was promised a representation on the director board of the bank during the next term, the sources said.

The election of the new director board was held on October 12. When the IUML put forth the 2005 promise made by the district Congress leadership, the present DCC leadership failed to honour it. The Congress contested in all the nine seats and won all the nine. This enraged the IUML. Soon after the bank board elections, the district unit of the IUML went into session and decided to sever its ties with the UDF.

The Congress sources said group wrangles within the party had led to the DCC leadership going back on honouring the agreement with the IUML.

Meanwhile, district chairman of the UDF Sooranad Rajashekaran made an attempt to settle the issue through mediation by Kerala Congress (B) leader R. Balakrishna Pillai and fixed a date and venue for the same. But the IUML district leadership did not turn up at the venue.

The IUML leadership maintained that the issue cannot be settled through talks.

A settlement could come only by accommodating an IUML representation on the director board of the bank, the sources said.

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