The United Democratic Front (UDF) leadership may mediate to iron out the differences between the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU), the students’ wing of the Congress, and the Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF), a student organisation affiliated to the Indian Union Muslim League, in the wake of the poor show of their candidates in the recently held union polls at the University of Calicut.
MSF State president P.K. Navas wrote to Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and UDF convener M.M. Hassan a couple of days ago informing them his organisation’s decision to leave the United Democratic Students’ Front (UDSF), an alliance of the MSF and the KSU, which is active in colleges in the Malabar region. Mr. Navas claims that the KSU did not function effectively to ensure the victory of the UDSF candidates in the Calicut University union polls.
KSU State president Aloshious Xavier, however, said in a Facebook post on Monday that the UDF has a State-level mechanism to sort out any differences that might arise between the two organisations. He pointed out in the post that the UDSF candidates lost the union polls by a narrow margin. That the candidates failed due to the KSU “transferring its votes” was an allegation that appeared only in news reports and through the social media, Mr. Xavier wrote in the post. The chairperson candidate, Theres P. Jimmy, was from the KSU. It was illogical to conclude that the organisation transferred its votes to ensure her defeat. He also claimed that the MSF had not yet come out with a press release.
Mr. Navas told The Hindu on Tuesday that he was awaiting a response from the UDF leadership on the letter. It is learnt that the leaders are pre-occupied with the developments on the floor of the Legislative Assembly. The MSF leaders had alleged that many of the UDSF candidates did not get the votes they would have normally got because of the ineffective organisational structure of the KSU. The SFI had won all the five general seats and four of the five posts in the executive committee of the union in the elections held after a gap of three years.
