UDF convener seeks AICC’s intervention in "lack of consultations” within Keralam’s ruling alliance

UDF convener Adoor Prakash United Democratic Front (UDF) convener Adoor Prakash on Monday sought the intervention of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to address his publicly aired grievances about a lack of consultation in the ruling alliance in Keralam, including “arbitrariness and opaqueness in key decision-making.”Mr. Prakash held a closed-door meeting with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi. Emerging from the meeting, Mr. Prakash gave a brief nod to reporters when asked whether he had brought his criticism, which seemed to obliquely target Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s style of functioning, to the notice of the party’s high command. A Congress leader in New Delhi said Mr. Prakash had given a written statement to Mr. Kharge and had sought an appointment with the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. He said he was not privy to Mr. Prakash’s correspondence and could not comment whether it was critical of Mr. Satheesan or the current pattern of decision-making. When asked whether Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph’s separate meeting with Mr. Kharge at the AICC headquarters in Indira Bhavan could be construed as an endorsement of Mr. Prakash’s publicly aired protestations, the party leader said the high command had called a meeting to discuss ratcheting up the party’s agitation seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at the provincial level. Mr. Joseph, Keralam’s Electricity Minister, later confirmed to reporters in New Delhi that he had met Mr. Kharge separately, but declined to comment further. Mr. Prakash had seemingly targeted the government for "keeping the ruling alliance in the dark” about two key political appointments, notably those of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader M.K. Muneer as the Administrative Reforms Committee chairperson, a post equivalent to Cabinet rank, and G. Devarajan, national general secretary of the Forward Bloc, as Keralam’s special representative in New Delhi. ‘Non-transparent manner’Mr. Prakash noted that he had no reservations about the merit of the nominated leaders but had serious misgivings about the "non-transparent and peremptory manner” in which the decision was taken behind the UDF’s back. Consequently, Mr. Prakash drew criticism from his peers, including a few Congress MPs, for airing contentious alliance matters in public domain. Supposedly pro-Congress social media handles took different sides on the issue, raising the spectre of renewed online intra-party feuding. Mr. Muneer’s appointment also reportedly caused some resentment in the Congress hierarchy, with some leaders privately wondering whether the government had inadvertently made itself vulnerable to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s strident accusation that the UDF had indirectly acquiesced to the IUML’s pre-election position that the party was eligible for a sixth Cabinet post. The political appointments also sent ripples through the UDF, with the Kerala Congress, which had projected its chairperson P.J. Joseph as a potential nominee for the constitutional post accorded to the IUML, signalling dissatisfaction with the alliance’s lack of consultation. Notably, the UDF met only once after the Satheesan government assumed power. Published - October 05, 2026 07:27 pm IST