K Surendran conspired against me, says Sobha

The dissident leaders are planning to hold meetings at the district level where their views will be heard. 
BJP Kerala vice-president Sobha Surendran (Photo| Facebook)
BJP Kerala vice-president Sobha Surendran (Photo| Facebook)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sobha Surendran and 24 other senior BJP leaders unhappy with the party’s state president,K Surendran, sent a written complaint to the central leadership on Wednesday after holding a virtual meeting. Speaking to TNIE, Sobha alleged that Surendran hatched a political conspiracy against her, both personally and politically, to eliminate her from the party.

During the last Lok Sabha election, Sobha had increased the BJP vote share in the Attingal constituency to 24 per cent from around 10 per cent even though she finished behind the candidates from the Congress and the CPM. Over the past fortnight, the 47-year-old had hogged the headlines striking a dissenting note after keeping a low-profile for the past eight months. After she was made the BJP state vice-president and not included in the state core committee, she was optimistic of getting a central berth.

Sobha felt that after being a member of the national executive, where she was also elevated as the co-convenor of the party’s national membership campaign committee along with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, she was sidelined at the state level. Over the past couple of days, Sobha and other dissident leaders were on a signature campaign against Surendran, alleging that only his loyalists have been included in the core committee.

“There was a concerted effort from the part of Surendran to tarnish my image even on social media by cooking up defamatory stories against me. The BJP central leadership should directly probe the political conspiracy hatched against me. Of late, only factional meetings under the Surendran faction have been happening with organisational activities taking a backseat,” Sobha said.

She wants the BJP central leadership to intervene urgently in the issue.“Former and serving state leaders as well as national council members, numbering 25, were huddled in an online meeting and decided to send its minutes to the BJP central leadership,” she said.

The dissident leaders are planning to hold meetings at the district level where their views will be heard. 
The move is likely to hamper BJP’s prospects in the upcoming local bodies elections even as they were hoping to get 70 per cent representation, including in Thiruvananthapuram corporation and various municipalities and panchayats. 

The differences have surfaced at a time when Sobha had earlier given a report to the central leadership citing around 6,000 plus seats the BJP could win in the local bodies elections.

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