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The Hindu
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Catholic Congress' hard line on courting fundamentalist votes unsettles LDF and UDF campaigns in Nilambur
The Catholic Congress, an influential non-ecclesiastical organisation within the Syro-Malabar Church, appears to have unsettled the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and opposing United Democratic Front (UDF) campaigns in the Nilambur Assembly by-election to some extent on Wednesday by striking a hard line position against the competing fronts soliciting the support of 'radical Islamist' political outfits in the high-stakes and no-holds-barred ballot box battle. In a strongly worded statement, the organisation, which claims to champion the socio-political interests of the Christian laity, has disavowed the LDF and the UDF's 'dalliance' with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, chaired by 2008 Bangalore serial blast accused Abdul Nasar Madani) and the Welfare Party of India (WPI, an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami) respectively. The Christian organisation, which has significant influence among the Christian settler-farmer community in Nilambur, a crucial electoral bloc, warned that enabling ultra-conservative Islamist groups to telegraph their so-called leverage in the bypoll would not bode well for the LDF and the UDF in future elections. Secular voters The Catholic Congress also took the line that secular voters would give a befitting reply to the UDF and the LDF's appeasement of 'terrorist forces and political Islam' in upcoming polls. The LDF and the UDF scrambled to decipher the electoral implications of the Catholic Congress' overt political positioning even as both fronts continued to slug it out over the touchy subject of 'myopically courting fundamentalist votes for short-term political expediency.' The UDF stated that the LDF had no qualms about seeking the Jamaat-e-Islami's support in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the 2011 Kerala Assembly elections. The LDF sought to differentiate between the respective political lines of the WPI and PDP by insisting that the latter eschewed radical Islamism and towed a secular democratic line. However, the Catholic Congress's hard line stance on the LDF and the UDF courting 'Islamist' forces appeared to give some comfort to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Current stance A senior BJP leader claimed that the Catholic Congress's current political stance dovetailed with that of the National Democratic Alliance and has buoyed the chances of the party's candidate, who hails from the Christian settler-farmer community in Nilambur.
India Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Kerala ruling party slams Opposition for ‘communal' Welfare Party alliance
The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala hit out at the United Democratic Front (UDF) over the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Welfare Party of India to the Congress-led candidate Aryadan Shoukath for the upcoming Nilambur bypolls. The CPI(M) called it an alliance with 'communal forces.'Meanwhile, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), led by Abdul Nasar Madani, has announced its support for the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the same the Welfare Party's support to the UDF an alliance with 'communal forces,' CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan said, 'Jamaat-e-Islami is a communal force which is there worldwide. Their stand is that there should be a religious country. Like RSS says, they are a party which says the counterpart of that.' Justifying the CPI(M)'s acceptance of PDP support, Govindan claimed that PDP and Jamaat-e-Islami cannot be equated. 'PDP does not have such a stand,' he of Opposition VD Satheesan questioned the CPI(M)'s double standards.'When the Welfare Party gave support to the UDF in Nilambur, CPI(M) called the Jamaat-e-Islami communal. But in 2009, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said Jamaat-e-Islami was a Muslim organisation with a clear political stand and welcomed their support.'He accused the Left of hypocrisy, saying, 'When they [Welfare Party] gave support to CPI(M), they were secular. When they support UDF, they are communal. This is their stand.'advertisementSatheesan also questioned CPI(M)'s comfort with the support of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose leader Abdul Nasar Madani was arrested in connection with terror cases.'The Left government's own PRD release praised the arrest and handover of Madani to Tamil Nadu police. Yet they now accept support from his party,' he Nilambur assembly seat falls under the Wayanad parliamentary constituency and will be going to polls on June 19. Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi will be arriving in Nilambur later this week. IN THIS STORY#Kerala
