THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite receiving the cold shoulder from the party’s state leadership, BJP state vice-president Sobha Surendran — whose 48-hour fast in front of the Secretariat ended on Friday — managed to facilitate a meeting between a group of protesting PSC job aspirants and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.
The governor reportedly lent a sympathetic ear to their grievances.Emerging from the Raj Bhavan, Laya Rajesh, who has been in the forefront of the agitation, said Khan has assured them he would do whatever was possible in his capacity as the governor to help them. “We were able to speak to him about various issues faced by us,” she said.The move by the firebrand leader had an almost immediate impact.
State BJP not pleased with Sobha’s success
Realising the damage potential of the agitation in the run-up to the elections and the future course it could take, the ruling CPM quickly changed its stance towards the protesters and urged the government to talk to them.Meanwhile, Sobha’s success in taking up the job aspirants’ cause, even without the support of the party machinery, has not gone down well with the BJP state leadership. Even when Sobha ended her fast on Friday, no state or district level leader showed up at the venue in solidarity.
Yuva Morcha activists, who were reportedly asked to call off their protest march planned to the Secretariat on Thursday where Sobha was staging the fast, made do with minor protests on Friday. Barring a few activists who waved black flags at minister A C Moideen’s official vehicle, the saffron party’s youth wing refrained from staging any major protest in the capital.