Priyanka meets Jifri Thangal

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and MP of Wayanad constituency Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama State president Jifri Muthukoya Thangal at his house at Muthuvallur, near Kondotty, on Sunday (September 21) evening.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president A.P. Anil Kumar, MLA, and District Congress Committee president V.S. Joy accompanied Ms. Vadra.

They held discussions with Mr. Thangal about Muslim issues and the political situation in the State. Mr. Thangal, who used to be a Congress supporter before he assumed the role of the Samastha president, received Ms. Vadra with warmth.

Ms. Vadra’s visit is seen as politically significant as there are fissures within the Samastha over relations with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a major constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

A few days ago, Ms. Vadra had visited Abdul Hakeem Azhari, son of the rival Samastha leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar, in Kozhikode.

Before visiting Mr. Thangal, Ms. Vadra visited the house of Kalyani Amma at Othayi, near Edavanna, who had been killed in an elephant attack. Kalyani Amma had died in the elephant attack at Chathallur on August 21. Ms. Vadra consoled her family.

She later inaugurated a dialysis centre set up at Government Taluk Hospital at Wandoor with ₹50 lakh spent from Rahul Gandhi’s MP fund. She also inaugurated a pain and palliative care centre at Kunduthodu, Edavanna.