Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), although representing only a small fraction of Kerala’s nine million Muslim population, has long attracted disproportionate attention for political and communal reasons. For over a decade now, the JIH and its political wing Welfare Party of India (WPI) have been at the center of political storms, especially during the Left Democratic Front (LDF)-led Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) rule since 2016.
JIH and WPI were used by both the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to shape social and communal narratives.
For the BJP, the Jamaat has always been an ideological adversary. For the CPI(M), friction apparently started after the Jamaat’s support shifted towards the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Until then, the Jamaat had openly supported the Left.
According to JIH Kerala Amir P. Mujeeb Rahman Jamaat supported the LDF in the 1996, 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections as well as the 2006 and 2011 assembly elections. This was due, he said, to the perceived weakening of the Congress’ ability to counter the BJP and right-wing fundamentalism.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, the WPI-led Jamaat contested about 40 constituencies, revealing for the first time the limits of its political influence. WPI candidates averaged just 1.06% of the vote, with WPI State President Hameed Vaniyambalam in Mankada making the strongest showing with 2.7%. Elsewhere, WPI extended support to both LDF and UDF candidates. Congress leader K. Muraleedharan, who won from Vattiyurkavu in 2016, admitted that he received Jamaat’s support that year.
The LDF-Jamaat involvement effectively ended in 2019 when the WPI’s support shifted to the Congress. Despite lending selective support to candidates on both fronts over the years, the Jamaat has never formally aligned itself with any party or front.
Several CPI(M) leaders, including the party’s former state secretary and current chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, have historically been involved with the Jamaat. Mr. Mujeeb Rahman recalls Mr. Vijayan’s meeting with former Kerala Amir T. Arif Ali at an Alappuzha guest house before the 2011 assembly elections. Mr. Arif Ali publicly declared Jamaat’s support for CPI(M) leader George M. Thomas in the 2006 Thiruvambady by-election.
Since 2019, with Jamaat and WPI supporting the UDF, the CPI(M) has started labeling them as communal and extremist and portraying the UDF as courting communal alliances.
“The CPI(M) has a moral duty to clarify whether Jamaat-e-Islami has become a terrorist organization after 2024,” said Mr. Mujeeb Rahman.
Allegations of extremism came to a head during the 2025 local body elections when the WPI joined hands with the UDF. While some CPI(M) leaders toned down their rhetoric, Polit Bureau member A. Vijayaraghavan alleged that the UDF was a “conglomerate of communal elements” without a secular face and noted that some UDF candidates were Jamaat nominees. He quoted KM Shaji in Vengara as a “propagator of Jamaat slogans”.
Ahead of the April 9 polls, the WPI had promised support to most UDF candidates to prevent another Left government in Kerala. WPI State President Razak Paleri claims that although the Left is secular, its continued rule serves the Sangh Parivar’s strategy, that the Left staying in power creates a social climate favorable to the Sangh Parivar in Kerala.
“Kerala should remain Kerala and leave no room for the Sangh Parivar,” he said to justify the WPI’s support to the UDF.
Published – 31 March 2026 09:54 IST
