THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : A day after the RSS stepped in to end dissidence in the state unit of the BJP, Union minister V Muraleedharan reached out to senior leaders who had raised a banner of revolt against state president K Surendran.
Muraleedharan, a former state chief, spoke to veteran P M Velayudhan, who had openly accused Surendran of completely sidelining him, and other leaders following the party reorganisation in March this year. Sources say Muraleedharan wants to send out a message of reconciliation through Velayudhan to Sobha Surendran and K P Sreeshan that their complaints too would be looked into.
“I’ve conveyed certain issues within the party to him (Muraleedharan) and he has agreed to address them,” Velayudhan told TNIE. It is reliably learnt that Velayudhan told the Union minister that Surendran’s style of functioning, sidelining a bunch of senior leaders, was harming the party at the grassroots level.
Muraleedharan rules out organisational issues
The party can ill afford such a crisis when local body polls are round the corner, Velayudhan is understood to have told the former state president. Muraleedharan confirmed that he had a meeting with Velayudhan, but denied there were any serious organisational issues.“The party is facing the upcoming election unitedly,” he told TNIE. However, it was not known whether Muraleedharan’s intervention was at the behest of the party’s national leadership.
Meanwhile, sources close to Sobha and Sreeshan said they would settle for nothing less than an organisational revamp that gives representation to leaders from all factions. The RSS’ intervention in the issue has further emboldened them to adopt a rigid stance. “As in any other party, factionalism has always existed in the saffron party as well. However, it’s when one faction is totally wiped out from organisational responsibilities by another that issues begin to spiral out of control,” said a senior leader.