Despite the party creating history in the recent Lok Sabha election by getting its candidate elected from Thrissur constituency (Suresh Gopi) , there is total chaos and confusion in Kerala BJP. The insiders describe the party as a rudderless ship.

This is the first time in the electoral history of Kerala, a BJP candidate got elected as member of parliament. A controversy has been erupted in the State over the paternity of Suresh Gopi’s win with the BJP leaders claiming the victory was only because of the State leadership’s relentless campaign.

But records prove that the State leadership has no role in Suresh Gopi’s election. He was a candidate fielded by the party high command  and the State leaders had no role in it,” said Sudheer Damodaran, a political critic based in Thrissur.

Suresh Gopi has managed to win the hearts of a section of the Christian community through his actions of charity and social activities irrespective of case, community and religion, added Sudheer.

Equally important is the fate of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who finished a close second behind Sashi Tharoor at Thiruvananthapuram , M L Ashwini at Kasaragod and Shobha Surendran who gave her Congress and CPI(M) rivals a run for their money. “Had Shobha been fielded from Attingal, where she had put up a superb performance by polling 2.48 lakh votes, this time we would have seen the BJP tally going up by two seats,” said P Sujathan, author and former editor of Kerala Kaumudi.

Though Suresh Gopi was elected from Thrissur, the per cent of BJP votes showed just a marginal increase this time (16 per cent). While BJP polled slightly more than 33 lakh votes this time in Kerala, it did not show any improvement from the morass it has stuck in, “The performance of K Surendran as party chief was a disaster as he is thoroughly incompetent,” said a veteran party leader. There is widespread resentment against Surendran and the cartel of party activists who are his acolytes.

People who were associated with BJP since its previous avatar as Jana Sangh suspect that there is a secret deal with the CPI(M). The statements made by Surendran and former union minister V Muraleedharan are with an eye to help the CPI(M), they allege. Surendran using derogatory and despicable words to humiliate political commentator Sreejith Panickar during a TV interview too has not gone down well with the people, according to Sujathan.

The performance of Rajeev Chandrasekhar at Thiruvananthapuram is proof that the constituency is no more invincible for the Hindutva party. A team of citizens led by former diplomat T P Sreenivasan led the election campaign for Chandrasekhar though the latter lost by 16,000 votes in a cliffhanger. “This was Chandrasekhar’s first hustings in electoral battle and he put up a good show,” said Sreenivasan. Even party insiders in BJP are of the view that services of people like Sreenivaan should be made use of by the party in future.

Prakash Javadekar, the party in charge of the State did a wrong thing by going around Kerala and claiming that the BJP would win at least five seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Prime Minister claimed that the party’s tally would touch the double digit mark in this election and it is widely believed that Javadekar fed the PMO with wrong information.

The chorus for ousting Surendran from the post of State party chief is growing day by day and it is likely to spread all over Kerala.