Thiruvnanthapuram, Dec 30 (IANS): Indian Union Muslim League's national General Secretary, P.K. Kunhalikutty met Syro-Malankara Catholic Church's major archbishop, Cardinal Mar Baselious Cleemis, at the Bishop's House here on Tuesday.

Kunhalikutty, who is to soon quit as an MP to be active in Kerala politics, will be based at Thiruvananthapuram. It may be noted that the Christian community has not been on good terms with the IUML following certain issues including Hagia Sofia museum issue in Turkey and the minority education grant distribution.

Recently, the Syro-Malabar Church's major archbishop, Cardinal George Alanchery had met Mizoram Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, of the BJP, and expressed his anguish over the Christian community garnering less than 20 per cent of the Central government aid in minority education. The church has been citing that a major chunk of the Central government minority grant is being garnered by the Muslim community.

After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had renamed Hagia Sofia museum as Hagia Sofia Mosque, there had been protests across the Christian world. As IUML's Muslim Youth League's Kerala chief Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal supported Erdogan's action in an article written in party mouthpiece "Chandrika", this created a major ruckus in the state and in the recently-concluded local body polls, there has been a shifting of Christian votes from the Congress-led UDF to Left parties.

Kunhalikutty has always been a major troubleshooter for the IUML and the UDF and he has met the the Syro-Malankara Church's major archbishop to defuse the tensions.

Addressing the media after the meeting, he said: "The vote of central Travancore is very important for the UDF and our Chief Minister has always been from Central Travancore. Hence we are trying to strengthen the UDF in whatever ways we can and Indian Union Muslim League has always done this."

After the Kerala Congress-Mani, which had predominant Christian leanings, had left the UDF for the Left, it had lost much of its space in Central Travancore and hence the IUML is trying to make amends with the Christian community and to bring back the lost ground before the 2021 Assembly elections.