THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Concluding that leaders P C George and Shone George went overboard with their attacks on the Catholic Church, the BJP has asked the father-son duo not to make any more public remarks on the matter.
The BJP state committee made the evaluation after a detailed analysis of the April 9 Kerala assembly election and the controversies that erupted in the run-up to and after the elections. Based on this, the party core committee, which met online on Monday night, issued the directive to the duo. Party insiders said Shone also had to explain his remarks before the core committee. It was BJP state general secretary and the NDA’s Tiruvalla candidate Anoop Antony who raised the issue. Both P C George and Shone are NDA candidates in Poonjar and Pala constituencies, respectively.
Monday’s meeting also saw strong remarks from party state vice-president K Soman in connection with the leaked audio clip of NDA’s Palakkad candidate Sobha Surendran, who is embroiled in the ‘cash-for-votes’ controversy.
In the clip, Sobha is heard speaking to now-suspended BJP Alappuzha district vice-president Bindu Vinayakumar and making derogatory remarks about both her and Soman.
“Soman said the audio clip has tainted his image even before his family. He demanded that the party probe the issue and take disciplinary action against Sobha,” said a source.
BJP sure of House re-entry
The BJP core committee has concluded that the party will re-enter the assembly by winning Nemom and Kazhakoottam. BJP is also hopeful of its performance in constituencies like Manjeshwar, Palakkad, Thrissur, Tiruvalla, Kattakkada and Thiruvananthapuram.
Three-member teams formed at the revenue district level and each comprising one core committee member and two state committee members will evaluate the BJP’s performance in all assembly constituencies at the booth level. The evaluation will begin on April 17, and a final report on each constituency will be handed over to the BJP top brass by April 30.