Kasaragod: The Congress and the CPM may be at each other's throats at Karuvannur, where leaders of the Marxist party are caught in a Rs 100-crore cooperative bank scam. But 350km north, but still, in Kerala, the two parties have joined hands to keep the BJP away from controlling the Vorkady Service Cooperative Bank Limited.
The village on the border of Kasaragod and Karnataka is seeing the first contest between Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) vs BJP in Kerala. But for the political workers here, they prefer the more rustic name for the alliance, CoMaLe, abbreviated from Congress-Marxists-(Muslim) League and sounds like a clown.
The alliance for Sunday's election has triggered a riot in the Congress, with those opposing the alliance with CPM joining hands with the BJP to form a rebel panel.
The Congress has struck back by expelling the four rebels who are part of the BJP's panel: Vinod Kumar, husband of District Panchayat Member from Vorkady division Kamalakshi K, Sunitha DSouza, Moosa Kunhi, and Muhammed Haneef.
Two IUML sympathisers are also part of the rebel panel. They were expelled from the party by the District Congress president P K Faisal.
On Saturday, Manjeshwar Block Congress Committee president P Somappa expelled three more Congress workers from the party. They are Harshad Vorkady, a former District Panchayat member from Vorkady division, S Abdul Khader Haji, former president of the bank, and Arif Machampady.
Somappa accused the three of campaigning for the BJP's panel of candidates and harming Congress's relationship with its allies.
Faisal said the expulsion by the Block Committee president would not stand because only the District Congress President has the power to take such an action, on the recommendation of the Congress state president. He said he had got complaints against the three and action could be taken only after an inquiry.
The District Congress President said the UDF's tie-up with LDF was not new and the same arrangement was there in 2018. "This is just the status quo," he said.
In the 11-member board, the Congress has five members, the IUML has three members, and the LDF has three members (one each for the Kerala Congress (Mani), the CPM, and the CPI. This was the same line-up in 2018, too, and it managed to keep the BJP off by 300 votes. But a few Congress workers did not like the understanding with the LDF and joined hands with the BJP, he said.
The Congress rebels said the bank was 120 years old and elections were never on party lines till 2008, when the Congress, the IUML, and the BJP fought the election together. The alliance controlled the bank for 10 years. "If today, the alliance is CoMaLe, for 10 years from 2008 to 2018, it was CoLeBi," said Harshad Vorkady, an influential Congress leader. CoLeBi is short for Congress, League, and BJP.
He said the CoLeBi alliance is there in Kumbla Service Cooperative Bank where the President is a BJP leader and the Vice-President is Congress's Shivarama Alva.
From 2008 to 2018, Congress's S Abdul Khader was the president of the bank. The BJP supported Abdul Khader in both terms, and the party's Mohandas and Narayana T were the vice presidents for the two terms, respectively.
Abdul Khader stepped down in 2018 citing personal reasons, and the Congress fielded Divakar S J as the presidential candidate. "The BJP had differences with Divakar and parted ways and the UDF joined hands with the LDF to retain the control of the bank," Harshad said.
The bank has 4,700 members and 2,300 votes were polled in 2018. The BJP alliance got 1,000 votes and the CoMaLe alliance got 1,300 votes.
"But after Divakar became the President, he ousted three UDF directors from the board. They or their supporters are contesting against the official Congress panel," said Harshad.
He said the rebel panel is not BJP's panel because the presidential candidate is Muhammed Haneef, a Congressman. "They had a problem with the Congress joining hands with the LDF. For them, BJP is a lesser evil than the CPM," he said.
Harshad said 300 new members were added to the bank. Of which 200 are BJP members, tilting the scale in favour of the rebel panel. "If the rebels manage to attract 500 votes, the CoMaLe panel will be routed," he said.
Harshad, however, said he was not campaigning for either panel and was in Bengaluru till Saturday, October 7. "The allegations against me are false. I am staying away from the election because the party did not agree with my request to go alone, even if there is a risk of losing," he said. "Why should the UDF join hands with a party that killed Kripesh and Sarathlal," he asked.
The election will be held on Sunday. The ballot papers are printed in Kannada and Malayalam to cater to people speaking the two languages in Vorkady.
