THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the RJD, an LDF constituent, announced candidates for three constituencies, its vice-president and former ports minister V Surendran Pillai resigned from the party on Thursday claiming that a cold war had been going on within the RJD over not getting more seats.
“The party has been witnessing an ‘internal cold war’ for the last two weeks over this issue (seat sharing),” said Surendran Pillai, who termed it the party’s inefficiency.
Looking to capitalise on the situation, the BJP is considering fielding the ex-RJD member as its candidate in the ‘starry’ Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Sources said primary discussions on his candidature were held with the leadership, and another round of talks will be held with him at the party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday morning, after which a final decision will be taken.
However, Surendran Pillai dismissed the alleged developments as rumours.
“I have a special affection towards Thiruvananthapuram constituency; it was from where I was elected as an MLA and served as the minister in 2006-11,” he said.
Thiruvananthapuram was a key constituency that was exempted from both BJP candidate lists, despite multiple people expressing interest in contesting from there.
Surendran Pillai was the UDF candidate in Nemom in 2016, from BJP registered its maiden victory in the assembly elections through its first state president O Rajagopal.
“While we teamed up with LDF for the 2021 elections, the then-party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said we would be given more seats in the next. Since the leadership failed to ensure it this time, we decided to quit,” he said.