THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While Mahila Congress leader Lathika Subhash shaved her head as a mark of protest at being sidelined as candidate, BJP's firebrand woman leader Sobha Surendran, who was also cold-shouldered, chose her words carefully to drive home the point.
Even though the central leadership had asked her to contest the assembly election, her name surprisingly went missing when the candidate list was announced on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, Sobha said Surendran’s candidature in two constituencies was a 'huge luck' bestowed on him by the central leadership.
She said even tall leaders of the party such as KG Marar, O Rajagopal and Kummanam Rajasekharan did not have such a good fortune.Sobha told reporters that a senior central leader of the party had asked her to contest but she was surprised to see her name missing from the list.
This has put the state leadership in the dock as it was quite evident who would have played spoilsport in Sobha’s candidature. "I will be actively campaigning for the party. I want to see a large number of BJP candidates winning the election and entering the state assembly," she added.
Meanwhile, sources indicated that the central leadership was keen on fielding Sobha as the woman face of the party.However, state president K Surendran reportedly conveyed to the central leaders that he, along with three other general secretaries, would quit if Sobha was offered Kazakkoottam, an A+ seat of the party.The central leadership, which did not want to antagonise state leaders at this crucial juncture, eventually changed its stance, sources said.