IUML flag removed from UDF event, alleges local Muslim League leader

A local leader of the Muslim League, a key partner of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala, on Saturday alleged that a Congress leader asked him to remove the party’s green flag from a Front’s programme in this southern district.

IUML district committee member Vembayam Naseer alleged that the Congress Block President, Andoorkonam Sanal Kumar, had shouted at him and asked him to remove the League’s flag which he brought to tie along the roadside for a UDF programme on Friday. ”Kumar abused me and asked me to go to Pakistan and tie it up there,” Naseer alleged. However, the Congress district leadership denied the allegations and said that no one from the UDF has entrusted Naseer to take charge of the event and tie the flags.

”On Friday, I had gone to Attipra area where the UDF was organising a protest programme. I had carried an IUML flag and tied it there. At that time, Andoorkonam Sanal Kumar abused me and asked me to remove it. When I told him that I am an IUML worker, he asked me to go to Pakistan and tie it up there,” Naseer said in a complaint filed with the Congress and the UDF leadership.

However, Thiruvananthapuram DCC president Palode Ravi told PTI neither the Congress nor the UDF leadership has received any such complaint. He claimed that the Muslim League leadership had not directed Naseer to tie the flags at Attipra programme.

”Even the local leaders were not familiar with that person who reached Attipra with the flags. I spoke with the local UDF and the Congress leadership. They told me that they had never asked Naseer to participate in the event,” Ravi said.

The Congress leadership said the event was not a UDF programme but a Congress protest and the IUML flags were asked to be removed as other allies of the Front might create an issue in case only the League flag was used.

Speaking to television channels, Naseer became emotional and said it hurts when someone treats him bad and asks him to go to Pakistan.