Muslim League wins Kasargode district panchayat after 10 years with INL support

By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,

Kasargode: The Muslim League won the presidency of the Kasargode district panchayat after a gap of 10 years with the support of the Indian National League. Party’s district vice-president PB Abdur Razak was elected the president of the district panchayat in the election held on Thursday.


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Razak defeated M Ananthan of CPI (M) to get elected. Razak got 9 votes (ML-4, Congress-4, INL-1) whereas Ananthan got only 6. The lone member of the BJP abstained from voting. All 16 members of the panchayat were present at the election that took place under the supervision of the District Collector Anand Singh.

The district panchayat was earlier with the CPI (M) but the lone member of the INL in the ruling alliance withdrew support to the CPI (M) following the state INL’s decision to bid farewell to the Left Democratic Front. A no-confidence motion was introduced by the eight members of the United Democratic Front with the support of the lone INL member following which CPI (M)’s MV Balakrishnan had to step down from presidency.

In the election held to the 16-member district panchayat in 2005, the LDF won eight seats, UDF won seven and the BJP got one seat. MV Balakrishnan of CPI (M) became the president with the support of eight members as the lone BJP member kept silent when the UDF voted against. One of the members who was in the DIC and won with LDF support later changed his party to the NCP and then to the Congress. The UDF introduced a no-confidence motion six months ago following this change in equation, but the motion was rejected on the excuse of technicality that it did not have 51% support even though eight members had supported the motion and seven opposed it.

C Ahmed Kunhi of the Muslim League was the first president of the Kasargode District Panchayat. The present panchayat president PB Abdur Razak took oath as the fifth president of the panchayat in the presence of the district Collector.

The UDF victory was made possible by the change in policy of the Indian National League which took the decision to bid farewell to cooperation with the LDF. The INL had been supporting and cooperating with the LDF since the party’s formation in the early 1990s. The party was formed when a group left the Muslim League in protest against the latter’s policies during and following the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The INL was founded by Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait, who was a senior leader of the ML. Even though the party supported the LDF always, the front was not ready to take the party into the alliance. Parties that came after the INL were taken in but INL was kept out. This continuing insult infuriated the party leaders as well as members which resulted in the decision to leave the LDF and support the UDF.

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