Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) Malappuram district general secretary P. Abdul Hameed, MLA, has been nominated to the director board of the Kerala State Co-operative Bank, now named Kerala Bank. Mr. Hameed, a veteran in the cooperative banking sector, confirmed his nomination and said he was happy to be part of Kerala Bank.
The IUML leadership gave its consent and expressed its happiness at the nomination. It was not the first time that an IUML representative was nominated to a State cooperative body under the Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule in Kerala. Mr. Hameed was nominated from Malappuram when the State Cooperative Bank was reconstituted under the ministership of Pinarayi Vijayan in 1996-97.
Mr. Hameed said that his party was cooperating with everyone in the cooperative sector irrespective of the party or front in governance.
Mr. Hameed was a director of the State cooperative bank for about 30 years. He holds the record for the longest-serving leader of the IUML in that post. He was also president of the Malappuram District Cooperative Bank for 17 years.
Mr. Hameed’s nomination has led to speculations over the CPI(M) attempting to win the IUML around. Even while holding the Congress at bay, the CPI(M) had shown an exceptional warmth in inviting the IUML to its Palestine solidarity rally recently.
However, Mr. Hameed and the IUML leadership rejected the speculations as baseless. “There is nothing political in this nomination. And it is nothing new. There was a good precedence in it. I have been nominated as a representative of Malappuram district, where the IUML is holding sway in more than 90% of the cooperative banks,” said Mr. Hameed.
He said the LDF and the United Democratic front (UDF_ had joined hands in their protest and marched together to the Reserve Bank of India office when Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised ₹1,000 and ₹500 banknotes in 2016. “The IUML will remain strongly with the UDF and oppose the LDF politically. And there is no politics in my nomination,” he said.
IUML State general secretary P.M.A. Salam said that there was nothing wrong in Mr. Hameed’s nomination, and that his party did not want to politicise the cooperative sector. He said the IUML wanted to work together to move forward in the cooperative sector.
The UDF is taking on the CPI(M) legally for amalgamating all district banks into Kerala Bank. The UDF, particularly the IUML, has been opposing the CPI(M) move in the Kerala High Court.
