THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/IDUKKI: Former CPM state committee member and MLA S Rajendran held a meeting with BJP Kerala prabhari Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on Wednesday, triggering speculation that the three-term legislator may join the saffron party. The meeting came to light after a photo of Rajendran and Javadekar went viral.
Both Rajendran and Javadekar were unavailable for comment. The LDF Idukki district leadership said it was unaware of the meeting, and accused the BJP of trying to woo its leaders with offers of money.
Rajendran was elected from Devikulam in the 2006, 2011 and 2016 assembly elections. He was suspended from the CPM in 2022 for trying to engineer the defeat of LDF candidate A Raja in the 2021 assembly elections.
Rajendran switching allegiance to the BJP will come as a setback for the CPM, which has been constantly attacking the Congress and painting it as unreliable after several leaders of the grand old party, including Padmaja Venugopal, joined the BJP recently.
It is learnt that the BJP Idukki district leadership and party leaders from Tamil Nadu had held several rounds of talks with Rajendran in recent months.
A senior BJP leader who attended Wednesday’s meeting, told TNIE that Rajendran “did not raise any condition or objection during the discussions.” “He also informed us about some issues of plantation labourers that he sought to bring to the Centre’s attention,” said the leader. CPI Idukki district secretary K K Sivaraman told reporters that BJP was widely seen as attempting to poach leaders from other parties by offering them money.
“I don’t think anyone will fall into this trap. If a CPM member does accept their invitation, I will definitely term the development unfortunate,” he said, adding that he came to know about the meeting through media reports.
‘Rajendran promised to campaign for LDF in Idukki’
Sivaraman said Rajendran had attended the LDF convention in Munnar and promised to actively take part in the campaigning of LDF’s Idukki candidate Joyce George.
Meanwhile, political analysts said there has been a difference of opinion between Rajendran and CPM leader M M Mani for some time now. Rajendran was declined the Devikulam seat in 2021 based on CPM’s decision against fielding sitting MLAs having two or more terms. Post elections, Mani and some leaders in Idukki had accused Rajendran of working against A Raja, the LDF’s candidate for the Devikulam assembly seat.
Though Raja won, CPM took disciplinary action against Rajendran and suspended his primary membership. A few weeks ago, Rajendran publicly said the BJP had approached him and that he had conveyed the same to CPM state secretary M V Govindan. He had also said he could not work in a party that has Mani.
To pacify Rajendran, Govindan had assured him that his primary membership to CPM will be reinstated.
Meanwhile, sources said BJP has been actively wooing Rajendran for some time, with discussions taking place during BJP state president K Surendran’s march in Idukki. It is reported a national BJP leader from Tamil Nadu is also in touch with Rajendran.
