Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 2 (IANS): The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second-biggest ally in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, vented anger against the Congress at their party leadership meeting on Saturday.

According to sources in the know of things, a section of the party leaders were "deeply upset" over the frequent bickering in the Congress party, and washing its dirty linen in public.

Many of them wanted the Congress party to settle all their internal issues, otherwise "the existence of the UDF would be in jeopardy".

The IUML leadership has also decided to take this issue up at the next UDF meeting and sounded a "stern warning" to the Congress party to keep its house in order.

Besides, the party leaders also decided to do an introspection and decided to find out the reason behind their loss in 12 seats, many of which they were expecting to win.

The IUML's seats declined from 18 (in 2016) to 15 (this year), which came as a shock for the leadership.

Following the Assembly polls debacle, it was a free for all in the Congress and the party high command stepped in and handpicked K. Sudhakaran as the new state president and V.D. Satheesan as the new Leader of Opposition, much against the general opinion in the party, which continued to be firmly under the seasoned veterans Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala.

The Congress party last month suffered another setback when two party general secretaries and a few other leaders dumped them and was greeted by the top brass of the CPI-M at their party headquarters here.

The Congress also faced another embarrassment when one of its top leaders -- V.M. Sudheeran -- quit as AICC member, after expressing his displeasure against the party high command.