By TCN News,
Kozhikode: TP Hashir Ali, son of Muslim League secretary TPM Sahir, yesterday announced that he would contest against Dr MK Muneer, who is also a secretary of the League and is contesting from the Kozhikode South constituency. All committees of the League opposed fielding Muneer in the election but still he managed to get a seat using the Indiavision channel, Hashir Ali reportedly accused in a press conference in Kozhikode.
Districts including Malappuram had opposed Muneer. He did not obey even when the party asked him to step down as Indiavision chairman. He receives Rs 50,000 monthly even though the channel has a loss of crores, he reportedly said. He accused that a group including a contractor named Muhammed Ali had attacked him when he held a press conference on behalf of the ‘Save Indiavision Forum’. He added that he had given Rs 1 lakh and helped amass more than Rs 16 lakh from friends for the Indiavision channel.
Hashir Ali said that he had earlier itself stated that he would contest against Muneer as a rebel wherever it was. However, he added that he would withdraw his candidature if Muneer resigned from the Indiavision channel as Chairman, withdrew the book published by him ‘Islamum Sthreekalum’ which insults the Prophet, and took off his wig which is non-Islamic. Hashir reportedly said that he would visit League president Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal before filing his nomination, and would contest even if Thangal did not allow.
The Indiavision news channel was earlier thought of as supporting the Muslim League as Dr MK Muneer was its chairman. Several businessmen supporting the League and many Gulf Keralites invested in the channel in the initial stages. It was the first news channel in Malayalam and soon established itself as an independent channel with no specific allegiance to any political party. Its role was decisive in bringing out new revelations in the ice-cream parlour sex scandal case, in which League general secretary PK Kunjalikkutty is said to be involved, during the last UDF government’s time. This made a gap between the League-supportive investors and the channel. And the recent revelations in the channel made the gap even wider and hard to mend.
Dr MK Muneer had contested from the Mankada constituency in Malappuram in the last Assembly election but lost to Manjalamkuzhy Ali, who was then an independent supported by the CPI (M) and is now in the League. But this time, the Malappuram district committee opposed fielding Muneer in the district. Several leaders had reportedly opposed fielding Muneer in the elections at all. Muneer, who is the son of League’s former leader late CH Muhammed Koya, became a sore in the eye of several League leaders and members when the Indiavision news channel aired the new revelations in the ice-cream parlor sex scandal case against Mr Kunjalikkutty. The party leadership reportedly asked Muneer to step down from the channel’s top post, but he refused and instead offered to step down as party secretary. The party was not ready to accept it. It later reportedly reached a deal with Muneer not to air anything more against Kunjalikkty in the channel. But that deal was also broken. All this brought much opposition to Muneer from the party leadership and members.