THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior BJP leader P S Sreedharan Pillai is set to become the new president of state BJP. Sources indicated Pillai has got the backing of party national president Amit Shah. A secret survey commissioned by Amit Shah using the services of a popular Malayalam news channel among the local populace found Pillai enjoyed the support of a majority of the people.
According to the survey, Pillai got 39.5 per cent support while O Rajagopal who came second got 20 per cent vote share and K Surendran 12 per cent. Amit Shah had also conducted a one-to-one meeting with former editor of Organiser R Balashankar who is presently the intellectual head of the BJP, on June 17 in New Delhi.
Balashankar is a senior journalist based out of Delhi for the past four decades and is close to the top leadership of the BJP and it is learnt the party national president has taken his view also regarding the posting of Pillai. BJP national organising secretary and senior RSS pracharak Ramlal had also met Balashankar and elicited his views on the state BJP president. Balashankar and Pillai were together in the ABVP at Pandalam NSS college.
In the recent Prantheeya Karyakari Baitak held in Kozhikode, there were reports that a conclusion has arrived that the new president of the BJP should be a person who can present a proper picture of the party situation in Kerala. It is learnt the RSS Prantha Karyavahak P Gopalankutty Master has categorically stated “The other side of Kerala BJP has not been presented in Delhi,” sources indicated. This is in oblique reference to V Muraleedharan who has been successful in presenting his side of the Kerala BJP politics in Delhi.
Another factor which helped Sreedharan Pillai was the spirited fight he had put up at the recent Chengannur bypoll and the votes he procured amidst a three-cornered fight has indeed been appreciated by the central leadership. He is seen as a neutral face of BJP without aggressive posturing much to the likening of a heterogeneous plural society like Kerala.
While the name of RSS pranthakaryavahak M Radhakrishnan was seriously considered for the post of president which Express had earlier reported, the national leadership of the RSS has taken a position that the Kerala BJP should have a leader from the party ranks itself. Also, Radhakrishnan is a senior RSS leader who is highly respected within the organisation and the RSS leadership cannot spare the services of such a leader to the BJP, sources said.