NCP faction’s merger with AIFB to be formalised on Oct. 4

Following its merger with the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), a constituent of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by N.A. Muhammed Kutty, former State president, will remain steadfast in supporting the AIFB’s alignment with the INDIA bloc and carry forward its fight against the Chief Election Commissioner and the alleged discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Mr. Muhammed Kutty has said.

The merger meeting, to be attended by AIFB national general secretary G. Devarajan and Mr. Muhammed Kutty, will be held at the Ernakulam Town Hall on Sunday. Mr. Muhammed Kutty claimed that a majority of the party’s committees had backed the merger decision, barring a few that chose to align with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Mr. Muhammed Kutty said the decision was prompted by the NCP national leadership’s move to align with the NDA across the country after Sunetra Pawar took over the reins of the party following the death of her husband, Ajit Pawar. According to him, this marked a departure from the earlier position of maintaining an alliance with the NDA only in Maharashtra. At the same time, it remained part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Keralam. The party later had a run-in with the CPI(M) over seat allocation ahead of the last Assembly election.

“The State unit of the NCP is predominantly composed of those who joined from either the Congress[S] or the Democratic Indira Congress [Karunakaran]. So, it was only logical to align either with the UDF or the LDF. We chose to join the AIFB, considering its socialist credentials,” Mr. Muhammed Kutty said.