SDPI Kerala state president Abdul Majeed Faizi openly announced that their party cadres had supported the Congress-led UDF in at least 3 constituencies, namely Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram.
Addressing a press conference in Kozhikode on Tuesday, Faizi blamed the CPI(M)’s leadership’s terrorism allegations against the SDPI for the party’s switch in favour of the UDF.
“The 1000-day tenure of the Pinarayi government has not done anything good for the minority community and they should think over this. Instead they come up with terrorism related allegations against SDPI every now and then and thereby incite their cadres to target us,” Faizi stated.
The decision to support the UDF in the three constituencies was taken at the state level, Faizi added. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, SDPI has contested from 10 seats in Kerala. According to reports, Faizi added that the cadres might have voted for the UDF in constituencies where the party did not field a candidate.
Faizi also added that the CPI(M) should introspect on why minority groups moved away from the party this time around.
“CPI(M) should understand the facts on ground and move in the right direction,” he stated.
Addressing the press meet, Faizi added that Kodiyeri’s statements against the party was an open call to violence.
“Kodiyeri said that if LDF is losing, SDPI could be one major factor behind the loss. He is thereby creating hatred between CPI(M) and SDPI cadres and this will create a major tussle on the ground between the two party workers,” Faizi added. The party president also stated the CPI(M) did not have a national presence to be a formidable opposition to the BJP.
CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had referred to SDPI as the ‘Indian version of Taliban’ back in July 2018.
Kodiyeri made the statement while reacting to the political murder of Maharaja’s college and student SFI (student wing of CPI(M) activist Abhimanyu. Several SDPI workers were arrested by the Kerala police following Abhimanyu’s political murder.
In March 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Kodiyeri has reportedly said there had been a secret meeting between SDPI and IUML in Malappuram. IUML is a part of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala.
LDF leader PV Anwar from Ponnani accused UDF convener Benny Behanan and IUML leader ET Muhammad Basheer of holding secret talks with Abdul Majeed Faizi.