Independent legislator P.V. Anvar, who bitterly broke ranks with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala and launched a new political movement at a well-attended public rally at Manjeri in Malappuram on Sunday, appeared hard-pressed to find a safe political anchorage despite his overtures to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (DMK).
Shunned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and feeling unwelcome in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition, Mr. Anvar had pivoted to the DMK, declaring Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin the ideological lodestar of his nascent political movement, intriguingly named the Democratic Movement of Kerala.
DMK sources told The Hindu in Chennai that Mr. Anvar had sought an appointment with Mr. Stalin. “But, the Chief Minister politely refused to meet him. The DMK has a good rapport with the CPI(M) and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. A meeting with Mr. Anvar will not augur well for DMK’s alliance with the Left parties in Tamil Nadu,” they said.
Mr. Anvar’s outfit had arguably sought to capitalise on the LDF’s deep-rooted relationship with the DMK in the latter’s stronghold in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiri district, which is contiguous with Malappuram in Kerala. Notably, LDF leaders from Malappuram, including Mr. Anvar, had supported DMK leader A. Raja’s winning campaign in the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency. The LDF in Malappuram also shared political ties with the DMK in the Gudalur Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu.
Supporters from T.N.
The people-to-people contact manifested in scores of vehicles sporting DMK flags and Tamil Nadu registration numbers ferrying supporters to Mr. Anvar’s rally from the Nilgiris.
In the run-up to the rally, Mr. Anvar appeared to be at pains to stress that his movement, despite the similarity in the initialism, was not a political outfit like the DMK in Tamil Nadu. “Ours is a broad-based peoples’ movement largely centred on the Dravidian movement’s secular principles,” he said.
Legal hurdles
Mr. Anvar conceded that he faced certain legal hurdles in forming a political party. For one, he remained a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s [CPI(M)] parliamentary party in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The CPI(M) is yet to expel Mr. Anvar from its fold in the Assembly formally but has made a political statement by assigning him a seat on the Opposition’s side of the aisle.
Mr. Anvar has positioned his fledgeling outfit as a popular counterweight to the State’s “deep state and established political class.” Mr. Anvar’s gambit seemed focussed on mustering the discontented members of mainstream parties to form an electoral entity open to negotiations with the traditional fronts in future elections. Both the ruling and Opposition fronts in Kerala perceive Mr. Anvar’s attempt as bid to emerge as a potential game changer in the impending byelections in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and, arguably by a long shot, the Wayanad Lok Sabha segment. As a former leader of the now-disbanded Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), a Congress breakaway faction led by former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran in 2006, Mr. Anvar is reckoned a past master at playing dissident politics.
Published - October 06, 2024 08:34 pm IST
