'Ask the Marxists why they betrayed us'

Unnikollam: This wooden beamed house of jeweller Rafiq in Unnikollam reeks of history. It's where campaign strategy has been fashioned, where the Muslim League's stalwarts have been nurtured for over 50 years before they were launched to state and national stature.

The young man at the bus stop, a curious 12-year-old, a nineteen-year-old computer student Aqil, all direct us effortlessly to the only house that matters in this village where the Congress-Muslim League-Indira Congress candidate K. Muraleedharan is giving a speech.

With cattle lowing in the barn, and a gaggle of older Moplah (the local name for Kerala's Muslims) women peering through the window, Murali opens up over a cup of tea.

You've made so many U-turns in your political career in the last few years, do you think the people still support you?
Murali: It was the Marxists who broke the agreement. They used us to win the panchayat polls. It was because of our support that they won the village councils and the Thiruvanthapuram by-election. Now they should answer why they betrayed us, why they went against the seat adjustments we agreed to with CPM chief Prakash Karat. Iddu chaddi ayirinnu (this was betrayal).

But you are now back supporting the Oomen Chandy-led government, which does not seem at all happy with having you as an ally?
Our agreement is with the Sonia Gandhi emissary Veerappa Moily. That agreement resolves all the issues that we had with Chandy on reservations for backward classes, Muslims and impoverished Forward Castes, instituting special Rs 3 per kg rice schemes as part of the Narendra Commission report.

But your father continues to be seen as doing all this insisting you be given an MP's seat, insisting you be made Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief, vice-president of the state Congress, and now this safe seat of the Muslim League to perpetuate his dynasty.
Why talk about me? I have won my seat thrice. You can't be foisted on the people. Look at the Marxists. Look at sitting MLA K.P. Rajendran, Binoy Vishwanath, their fathers were K.P. Prabhakar and C.K. Vishwanath. Why doesn't anyone ask about that?

Did you see that man at your meeting, that intoxicated person who said he was in a Saudi jail for 17 months because he had stayed on after his visa expired. He still intends to go back. What are you doing to build awareness of the laws in the Gulf countries among such people?
We've done it, we were the first to set up an NRI cell. What have the Marxists done? They were in government too. From '87-'91, and 1996-2000. The laws are strict but at least we started something.