KASARGOD: In a major embarrassment to the state leadership of the BJP, around 200 workers locked the party's Kasaragod District Office and staged a sit-in against the "unholy nexus" the party struck with the CPM in Kumbla grama panchayat.
What makes the situation in Kumbla particularly distasteful for the party workers is that the BJP helped CPM member S Koggu, convicted of killing a BJP activist, become the chairperson of the panchayat's Welfare Standing Committee.
In recent days, around 40 leaders, including district vice-president P Ramesh, Paivalike panchayat committee president Logesh, Mogral-Puthur panchayat committee president Yogesh, and leaders of Yuva Morcha, have resigned from their posts protesting against the inaction of state president K Surendran.
"Instead of taking action against the two leaders who orchestrated the nexus with the CPM, Surendran promoted and made them state leaders," said a senior BJP leader in Kumbla.
The issue has been simmering in Kasaragod since December 2020, after the local body election threw a hung verdict in Kumbla gram panchayat. But the party workers' anger came out in the open after BJP's grassroots worker Jyotish, accused of murder and attempt to murder cases, ended his life because of the financial crisis on February 15.
CPM's S Koggu was accused in the murder case of Jyotish's maternal uncle and BJP worker B T Vijayan, and also in the murder of BJP worker Dayananda.
Vinu Koipady was killed in 1998, Vijayan was killed in April 2000, and Dayananda was killed in 2001.
The BJP routinely pays homage to the three slain workers during the launch of the party's election campaigns.
Kumbla quandary
Kumbla gram panchayat was a bastion of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) but lost its dominance in the last local body election.
In the 23-member panchayat, the UDF could win only 10 seats. The BJP won nine seats, two more than in 2015. The CPM won three seats, and the SDPI won one seat.
However, the IUML and the Congress members were elected as the president and the vice-president of the panchayat as the CPM members abstained from voting. By default, the vice-president became the chairperson of the Standing Committee for Finance.
But the nine members of the BJP and the three members of the CPM voted together to corner the standing committees for Development, Health & Education, and Welfare.
The strategic voting made CPM member S Koggu the chairperson of the Welfare Standing Committee. The District Sessions Court had sentenced him to seven years in prison for killing Vinu Koipaddy. Later in January 2022, the high court upheld his conviction but commuted the sentence to four years.
Then the BJP's new district president Ravish Tantri Kuntar issued a statement asking Koggu to resign from his post. But Koggu hit back and local newspapers quoted him saying he would not step down because he was made the standing committee chairperson by the BJP. "That was like rubbing salt to our wound," said Shankara K, Kasaragod Mandalam secretary.
He said the former district presidents K Shreekanth and Suresh Kumar Shetty orchestrated the unholy nexus between the CPM and the BJP. But instead of taking action against them, Shreekanth was made the party's state secretary and Shetty was made the party's north zone general secretary, he said.
Shreekanth denied the charge and said the decision was made at the panchayat level and the district leadership had no role in it. "Those who are protesting now were of the opinion that the two BJP standing committee chairpersons need not resign," he said.
'Surendran is evading us'
The protestors disagreed with Shreekanth. They said they had raised the issue with Shreekanth but he ignored it. "There was a standing instruction from the party's state leadership that there should be no tie-up with the IUML and the CPM in local body elections. When the BJP in Kumbla panchayat violated that, why was no action taken against the violators?" said the senior BJP leader quoted in the first instance.
Shankara said they raised the issue with BJP state president Surendran during the Assembly election. "He asked us to cooperate with the campaign till the polling day on April 6. He assured us that he would take action against the two leaders on April 7 and place the decision before the state committee on April 9," said Shankara. "But after the election, Surendran stopped attending our calls and is avoiding us," he said.
During the state committee meeting held in Kasaragod in July 2021, the families of the slain workers submitted their petitions to all the state leaders who came to Kasaragod. "All of them ignored our plea. We felt they were insulting the martyrs' families. They should know there is no party without workers," he said.
On Sunday, party workers from Kasaragod, Kumbla, and Manjeshwar assembled in front of the District Office after coming to know that Surendran was expected to be in the district to take part in events to mark the death anniversary of party ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya.
But party sources said he called off the visit after getting a whiff of the protest.
The protesters got angry and locked the party office and said they would not allow any party to function in the office unless action was taken against the leaders behind the nexus.
They also asked the two standing committee chairpersons Premalatha S and Premavathi to step down by Thursday else they would take out a protest march to their houses.
Caption: BJP workers staging a sit-in in front of the party's Kasaragod District Office against the nexus with CPM and supporting a member convicted of killing a BJP worker in Kumbla panchayat, in Kasaragod on Sunday.