THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the dismal performance in the assembly election, rumblings have begun in the BJP camp, with a section of the leaders staying away from the online state leadership meeting and taking up their grouse with the central leadership.
Notable among the absentees in the state leadership meet held on Thursday were senior leaders P K Krishnadas, Sobha Surendran and A N Radhakrishnan. Sources say the three leaders, who unsuccessfully contested the assembly election, were unhappy with the huge drop in votes in their respective constituencies.
It is reliably learnt that a few leaders from the state who are part of the national executive and national council have written separate letters to the central leadership. They have reportedly demanded a change of guard in the state unit. The credibility loss suffered by the party on account of the dip in vote share and the serious allegations of rivals about the trading of votes have been cited as reasons for the demand.
Among the prominent leaders in the state, Krishnadas, Sobha and Radhakrishnan who contested from Kattakkada, Kazhakoottam and Manalur respectively saw their votes drop drastically compared to the votes polled in these constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. While votes polled by BJP in Kattakkada and Kazhakkottam went down by 6,150 (-4.92%) and 5,286 (-5.29%) respectively compared to 2019, the saffron party’s votes in Manalur plummeted by 8,189 (-6.11%).
The leaders reportedly believe that a faction in the party has scuttled their chances.The unearthing of huge piles of undistributed notices meant for Sobha’s campaign in Kazhakoottam has lent credence to their argument. Meanwhile, BJP Kerala prabhari (in-charge) C P Radhakrishnan said a preliminary assessment has revealed that the votes polled by allies were not up to the expectation. “The vote share of BDJS has gone down abnormally. This factor needs to be thoroughly examined,” he told TNIE. He added that the ‘caste card’ played by Pinarayi Vijayan was instrumental in a large chunk of Ezhava votes going to LDF kitty.