THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the BJP has fielded around 10,000 women candidates in the local body poll, the absence of a woman leader at the helm of the party’s state unit, coupled with a recent spate of the resignation of woman leaders, has added to the saffron party’s woes. So it came as little surprise when Mahila Morcha national president Vanithi Srinivasan, who was in the state for the local body poll campaign, threw her weight behind senior BJP leader Sobha Surendran. Sobha had recently aired her grievance at being sidelined in the party by the present state leadership.
Vanithi told reporters that Sobha airing her complaint openly could not be construed as indiscipline and hoped differences of opinion would be resolved soon. She indicated that Sobha, who is the only woman from Kerala to find a place in the BJP national executive, would be given a befitting party post soon.
Meanwhile, prominent woman leaders quitting the party in protest, ahead of the local body poll, has left the BJP worried. Prominent among those who quit was Jayasree Prasannakumar, BJP Kottayam district vice-president and former state vice-president of Mahila Morcha. She is the sister of RSS prantha pracharak (state organising secretary) P N Harikrishna Kumar.
Mahila Morcha Palakkad district VP Sreeja Rajendran was another woman leader who quit her post to lodge a strong protest at being sidelined. Mahila Morcha leader and BJP Alathur constituency vice-president Prakashini Narayanan resigned from the party recently. Meanwhile, Mahila Morcha state secretary Sindu Rajan has been keeping away from party functions for quite some time for the same reason.
Lalithambika I and Swapna Shekhar, two BJP councillors from Thrissur corporation and Varkala municipality respectively, had also quit their party posts after being cold-shouldered in the candidate selection for local body poll. Meanwhile, it is reliably learnt that several BJP district units owing allegiance to the P K Krishnadas faction have asked state leadership that Sobha Surendran should be roped in for campaigning to gain considerable influence among woman voters.
The demand from various district units has put pressure on state president K Surendran who had assured earlier that Sobha would be at the forefront of the campaign. But there is criticism that despite extending the olive branch, he did not do much to take the dissident leaders into confidence.