The factional feud in the BJP state unit has once again come to the fore with a section of office-bearers planning to revolt against the state president of the party. This time, it is the denial of the state general secretary post to former national executive member M T Ramesh that has caused the unrest.
In the state office-bearers’ list announced on Wednesday, Ramesh had been nominated as one of the four state vice-presidents. In BJP, it is the state general secretary post that is considered to be more important than the state vice-president post. And Ramesh, who is a former state general secretary and national executive member, is not content with the new posting. There had been complaints that the official faction had secured most of the major posts sidelining the others. But the official faction’s stand is that there are only four slots for the general secretary post including that of the organising secretary. Of this, A N Radhakrishnan belonged to the other faction while organising secretary Umakanthan is from the RSS. ‘’To replace K Surendran or K P Sreeshan, the other general secretaries, cannot be considered as of now,’’ a leader from the official faction told ‘Express’.
When contacted, M T Ramesh told ‘Express’ that he had intimated their stand to the central leadership and would wait for its response. ‘’There is nothing to share with the media. We have spoken to the central leadership and will wait for its response’’ he said. BJP state president V Muralidharan when asked about media reports of eruption of factional feuds in the party and the reported stand by a section of leaders including A N Radhakrishnan and M T Ramesh that they would not be assuming the posts, said it was all a mere ploy to create ripples in the media for a day. ‘’To the best of my knowledge no one had officially complained to the central leadership. I have spoken to Rajnath Singhji (BJP national president) the other day too. He hasn’t told me about any complaint from the state.
Moreover, in BJP there is no such official ceremony to assume posts’’ he said. Muralidharan said after the announcement of the office-bearers their responsibilities also would be announced. But that announcement has not yet been made.