THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:BJP national joint organising secretary B L Santhosh came in for severe criticism at the party’s core committee meeting held in Thrissur for his alleged involvement in shunting Kummanam Rakasekharan out of state politics.
Leaders who spoke at the meeting blamed Santhosh for conniving with former state president and Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan to dethrone Rajashekaran from the party president’s post.
Leaders also wanted Rajasekharan back as the party president. According to sources, the attack left V Muraleedharan and K Surendran dumbfounded and they had no response to the criticism. Sources said senior leader and MLA O Rajagopal said hit out against the ‘use of money and invoking of caste in BJP politics’. “Whatever we may say outside, there is a feeling in the state that Kummanam was given a punishment transfer and this has led to BJP taking several steps backward in the state,” Rajagopal said.
Party official spokesman M S Kumar started the debate in the party office bearers’ meeting and lashed out at the treatment meted out to Rajasekharan. According to sources he told the meeting that “there are a dozen leaders here who can be the state president, and there should not be any backdoor entry and we have to democratically decide on the next president.”
Drawing a parallel to the football World Cup he said: “How will fellow players and followers react if the captain of a team is replaced at the last minute? Same thing happened to our party when our captain was removed in the middle of Chengannur by-election leaving the party without a leader”.B Gopalakrishan said: “Those who removed Kummanam had the mindset of Kaikeyi of Ramayana who not only wanted Bharatha to be the king but also wanted Rama to be banished to forest”.
2019 polls: BJP to reach out to people
Kochi: A meeting of the BJP state unit core committee has decided to launch a state-level campaign to popularise the Union Government’s flagship welfare schemes among people. With the national leadership yet to name a new president for the state unit, the core committee decided to reach out to the people and boost the morale of the party rank and file in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The meeting also decided to organise programmes across the state on the remembrance day of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee. The district committees of the party will meet on June 24 and 25 to discuss the party programme. A core committee member said the national leadership is expected to name a new president within 10 days.