Minor Muslim parties such as the Social Democratic Party of India ( SDPI) and the Welfare Party of India (WPI) which are not aligned with any of two rival coalitions will support either the Left Democratic Front (LDF) or the United Democratic Front (UDF) to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in their strongholds in the coming Assembly polls.
The SDPI, the political wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), has fielded 43 candidates across the State, including six each in the districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram and five in Kannur. “The party has taken a policy to transfer its votes to most winnable candidates in other constituencies where the BJP appears to have an upper hand in the polls. This will ensure that the BJP will not get elected,” said Mustafa Kommeri, State secretary, SDPI, who is contesting from Koduvally.
Independent survey
Mr. Kommeri said that the BJP State leadership had given an impression that the party had a chance to emerge victorious in 15 seats . “But our party will conduct an independent survey to gauge the mood of the electorate and take a decision accordingly,” he said.
After adopting a multi-pronged strategy that included tacit understanding at local levels with all parties, the SDPI reaped rich electoral dividends by emerging victorious in 95 seats in the State’s three-tier local body polls held in December 2020.
“We are projecting an alternative politics against both the CPI(M) and the Congress. However, we also had bitter experiences with both coalitions on several issues,” Mr. Kommeri said.
Incidentally the WPI of the Jamaat Islami Hind that had an electoral alliance with the UDF in some regions in the local body polls is going alone in the Assembly election. “The party has fielded 19 candidates, including four in Malappuram and three in Kozhikode. We have decided to maintain an equidistant policy now,” Hameed Vaniyambalam, State president, WPI, said.
He said that the WPI would support candidates either of the UDF or LDF in Assembly segments where the BJP was a threat. “The leadership is reviewing the five-year performance of the State government. Then on the eve of the polls, we will inform our cadre about the preference of the party. We have done this earlier also and supported both the coalitions,” Mr. Vaniyambalam said.
