Thiruvananthapuram: As assembly elections draw closer in Kerala, political debate in the state is increasingly centred on the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) and its support for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
Both the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are accusing the Congress of accepting the support of a ‘communal organisation’, while the Congress accuses the CPI(M) of double standards.
On Tuesday, CPI(M) state secretary M.V. Govindan said the Jamaat was “as poisonous as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)”, alleging that the organisation was attempting to influence Kerala politics.
“I told that V.D. Satheesan is the coordinator of the Jamaat-e-Islami-BJP-Congress-
The Congress, meanwhile, has accused the Left of double standards, alleging that the CPI(M) had received the organisation’s support in the past.
“Jamaat-e-Islami was with the CPI(M) for 42 years. Govindan was elected multiple times with their help. The same is true of Pinarayi Vijayan. This is sheer double standards. Till the parliamentary polls, they were indulging in minority appeasement; now it is majority appeasement,” Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said last week.
Ahead of his Puthuyuga Yathra (New Age March), Satheesan reiterated last week that the Congress would accept the Jamaat’s support and that the organisation has clarified that it doesn’t support religious extremism.
The debate, which started in the run-up to the 2025 Nilambur bypoll, has intensified as the assembly election draws closer.
The JIH website says the organisation’s stated ideology holds that ‘Allah’ is the only god and that its primary objective is the establishment of ‘Iqamat-ud-Din’, an Islamic way of life.
In 2011, the Welfare Party of India (WPI) was formed. A political party largely seen as the JIH’s political offshoot, it advocates establishing a welfare state and promoting social justice. Though the party has contested elections, its electoral presence in Kerala has remained at the local body level.
Both the Jamaat and the Welfare Party of India have said the latter is not a direct political offshoot of the former.
“The Welfare Party is an independent party, which also includes Jamaat members. We highlight the politics of land rights, constitutional rights and reservation, and we highlight issues faced by the Dalits and Muslims,” said Razak Paleri, state president of Welfare Party.
Both Welfare Party and JIH leaders said the CPI(M) started accusing them of religious extremism after they announced their support for the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Political analyst Joseph C. Mathew said the CPI(M)’s tactic was aimed at mobilising Hindu and Christian fundamentalist votes. “Jamaat is a negligible minority in Kerala and does not have any real impact. The CPI(M) is projecting Jamaat as the reason for Muslim consolidation in the state. This risks people equating Muslims with Jamaat,” he said.
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JIH & Welfare Party
The roots of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in Kerala go back to the formation of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist movement founded by Islamic scholar and journalist Syed Abul Ala Maududi in British India in 1941. After the Partition, the organisation split, and its Indian wing, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, was formed in Allahabad in 1948.
According to its website, its Kerala chapter was established by V.P. Muhammed Ali, inspired by Maududi’s ideas, and as part of the parent organisation. The first conference of Jamaat members in Kerala was held in Calicut on 21 August 1948.
Samad Kunnakkavu, a JIH functionary, told ThePrint that the organisation takes positions based on “based on human rights, anti-fascism, and development”.
The organisation’s social media activities include press conferences, statements against the CPI(M), expressing solidarity for Christian priests attacked in various parts of the country, and updates on religious and charitable events. Kunnakkavu said the Jamaat has always supported political parties or individual candidates based on their values.
“When we supported individual candidates, the majority of our support went to Left candidates rather than the Congress, due to their anti-fascist and anti-imperialist principles,” he said.
He added that this support continued even after the formation of the Welfare Party. He said both the Welfare Party and Jamaat supported the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections owing to shifts in national politics and the Congress’s wider national presence.
“Since then, the CPI(M) has been accusing us of religious fundamentalism,” he said.
The Welfare Party of India was founded in 2011 in New Delhi with the stated objective of establishing a welfare state and promoting social justice. Similar to JIH, the party too has spoken out in support of protesting ASHA workers, against the rising price of cooking gas, demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation over the Pahalgam terror attack, and raised concerns over attacks on Christian priests in Jabalpur, among other issues.
The party won 42 seats in local bodies in its maiden contest in the 2015 local body elections. In 2020, it won 65 seats, which increased to 75 in the 2025 local body polls. However, the party has not won any significant victories in assembly elections. Kerala has over 21,000 local body members across 1,200 local bodies.
The party accused the CPI(M) of echoing statements similar to the Sangh Parivar, an allegation also made by the state’s Congress.
“After 2021, the CPI(M)’s civil engagements have moved closer to the Sangh Parivar. We do not think this is to strengthen the BJP, but perhaps to weaken the Congress for its own survival,” said a WPI leader who did not wish to be named.
Launching the campaign for the upcoming assembly polls, Satheesan Friday accused the Left of creating communal polarisation. Calling the CPI(M) “extreme right”, he said they would never compromise and question whoever speaks the language of communalism.
A resolution
The debate over Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is not new to Kerala. During the 2015 local body elections, the CPI(M) was reportedly accused of tying up with the Jamaat in some areas.
The issue resurfaced during the 2025 Nilambur bypoll after the Welfare Party announced its support for the UDF candidate. The CPI(M) accused the UDF of aligning with communal forces, while the UDF countered by accusing the Left of hypocrisy.
On Sunday, the Samastha Kerala Jam’iyyathul Ulama passed a resolution during its centenary celebrations opposing Jamaat’s ideology and what it termed the politicisation of Islam. The organisation warned that “Maududian thought” was misleading Muslim youth and posed a grave threat by distancing them from the mainstream. Samastha is a prominent body of Sunni Muslim scholars in Kerala.
Soon after, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan endorsed the call for secular unity. Speaking at the concluding ceremony where Satheesan was also present, Vijayan urged secular-minded people across religions to stand together against communalism.
Political analyst K.P. Sethunath said, “Kerala is the state where the Muslim community is most politically empowered in the country. So, for Jamaat to join the CPI(M) is not sustainable because there will be ideological clash. So in a state like Kerala, where they want to make a foothold, Congress is the option.”
He added that the Jamaat’s influence was visible in the campaign of Congress candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala’s Vadakara, where Congress MP Shafi Parambil defeated K.K. Shailaja. He added that the Congress has benefitted from the Muslim consolidation in favour of the party in the recently concluded local body polls, too.
Similarly, Sethunath said the CPI(M) is also attempting to regain its vote base, particularly among the Ezhava community, which has begun shifting to the BJP, while the Left party was struggling to secure minority votes.
He said the CPI(M)’s criticism of the Jamaat should also be more ideologically rooted. “They keep saying the RSS and Jamaat are the same. That is not correct.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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