For cadre-based BJP, poor organisation proved its undoing in Puthuppally bypoll
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The near washout of the BJP in the just-concluded Puthuppally by-election has left its state president K Surendran and newly appointed RSS pointman K Subhash with much to answer for. With crucial general elections round the corner, both the CPM and the Congress took the opportunity to do some early legwork, even if the sympathy wave set off by the demise of former CM Oommen Chandy helped the latter romp home in record-setting fashion.
The Sangh Parivar outfit, however, would view this as a lost opportunity to get its act together as widespread criticism of poor coordination at the booth level and candidate selection weigh on its leadership.
There is growing resentment within the state BJP over what is being viewed as an organisational failure that resulted in the huge erosion of votes, and the resulting loss of its candidate’s deposit. Like the CPM, the BJP also depends on its cadre. However, leaders and workers point out that for the first time, the party failed even at the booth level, which is fundamental to the organisation.
“At Puthuppally, we understood that there was no one to represent us at several booths,” a senior BJP leader told TNIE. “Even for booth-level campaigning, the party was forced to depend on workers from outside the constituency. It was a shame that the party that is keen to capture power in the state had no organisational structure in the constituency,” he said.
According to many of its leaders and workers, BJP’s organisational strength started to erode following the tenure of V Muraleedharan. At the time of Kummanam Rajasekharan and P S Sreedharan Pillai, there was criticism that they were old and the party needed a young leader.
“Yet, the situation did not change after Surendran took over. Now, the state BJP has lost its way. Surendran, apart from being a crowd-puller, did not grow into an organisational leader. Muraleedharan used to attend even booth-level meetings. If leaders show no interest, the organisational structure will weaken. Now what happens is when the national leadership asks it to set up committees the state leadership instructs lower-level leadership to do so,” a state leader said. The concern is that the situation is more or less the same in other constituencies, barring some.
Organisational general secretary Subhash, took charge after his predecessor, M Ganesan, was unceremoniously called back to the RSS. Being an RSS appointee, Subhash was in charge of the by-election. But like Surendran, he has also been receiving flat for his lack of leadership.
Questions are being raised about the erosion of the vote base. In 2016, the BJP received 15,999 votes in Puthuppally. In 2021, even in the midst of a left wave, the party succeeded in garnering 11,694 votes. The Nair and Ezhava communities are considered its primary vote banks, but even its core voters seem to have ditched the BJP in the bypoll.
Surendran blamed the sympathy vote in favour of Oommen Chandy and the anti-incumbency wave against the LDF government for the party’s poor performance. National leaders and the RSS, however, are unhappy with the outcome and the explanations proffered.