CPI leader Rahmathulla joins Muslim League
MALAPPURAM: CPI national council member and state executive committee member M Rahmathulla resigned from the party and joined the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Tuesday.
Rahmathulla announced at a news conference here that he accepted the IUML membership from party state president Hyderali Shihab Thangal at his residence in Panakkad on Tuesday morning. He also said that he had submitted the resignation to the CPI leadership and had resigned from the chairmanship of the State Housing Board. “My resignation is in protest against the LDF policies towards the minorities,” he said. “I have not demanded any position in the IUML, but only a membership of the party,” said the former CPI leader. However, his resignation came as the CPI state executive decided to seek explanation from him and the Malappuram district council regarding the defeat of the CPI candidate in Ernad.
Alleging that the LDF and the CPI are denying social justice to minorities, Rahmathulla said that the candidates’ list of the CPI had no fair representation for the minority community.
“The IUML has proved its contemporary relevance and commitment to secular values, and I find it the apt place to continue social service,” he said. Responding to the questions about the defeat of the CPI candidate in Ernad, he said that the party district leadership owes an explanation for that.
“The undercurrents caused a dip in the votes of the LDF candidates for Ernad, Tirurangadi and Manjeri constituencies. The CPI should show the courage to question the CPM regarding this at the LDF meeting,” he said.
He also claimed that his family members and supporters including Pravasi Federation Kozhikode district committee member Basheer Ahamed, Yuva Kala Sahithi district member M Suhail and Lawyers’ Congress Ernakulam district committee member Adv K P Mujeeb Rahman have joined the Muslim League along with him.
Rahmathulla had been a member of the CPI for 38 years and had served the party as its Malappuram district secretary for a long time. He had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as the LDF candidate for Wayanad constituency. Meanwhile, following Rahmathulla’s resignation, CPI workers took out a march in the town proclaiming that communal forces have gone out of
the party.