The BJP’s claim that it would emerge as a game changer in Kerala after the 2021 Assembly election suffered a setback on Tuesday as a national level leader of the party came out in the open lambasting the State leaders.
“The present leaders of the Kerala unit of the BJP do not want the party to grow and are using the party as a milch cow,” said R Balasankar, former chief editor of The Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece and an author of repute.
Balasankar was upset because he was denied a ticket in the Assembly election scheduled for April 6. It was widely reported in the local vernacular media that he would be fielded from Chengannur Assembly constituency, his hometown.
He had told The Pioneer sometime back that he had come to Kerala to contest the Assembly election with the blessings of the national leadership. “But the writs of the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the party’s all India president do not run in Kerala. The State leadership does not want the party to take roots in Kerala for obvious reasons,” Balasankar told The Pioneer.
This newspaper had reported on Tuesday that there was widespread resentment among the party cadre and leaders over the denial of party ticket to Sobha Surendran, former vice-president of the party. While K Surendran, president of the Kerala unit of the party is heli-hopping from Manjeswaram in Kasaragod and Konni in central Kerala, the two constituencies from where he is seeking electoral fortunes, the party is yet to take a decision on fielding Sobha Surendran.
“It is K Surendran who unleashed an agitation against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for hiring a helicopter to visit different parts of the state. Now he is enjoying the chopper rides.
A deal has been struck between the Kerala BJP and the CPI(M) to ensure the victory of Surendran in one of the constituencies from where he is fighting,” said Balasankar.
The outburst in the Hindutwa party has helped the Congress to divert the narrative caused by the Mahila Congress leader tonsuring her head for denying her a seat in the ensuing election. \Though there were protests in the CPI(M) over selection of candidates, no party in the State has seen the kind of resentment being shown by the BJP.
“It was gross injustice to deny Balasankar a seat in this election. The BJP may have to be content with the percent of votes it had polled in the 2016 and 2019 election. Even if it manages to win two or three seats in this election, it will not cause any impact in Kerala politics,” said P Rajan, former editor, Mathrubhumi and author.
He said the present leadership of the party is immature and does not know how to fight an election. “Helicopter rides by the party president is sure to cause loss of face to the BJP,” said Rajan.
C P Radhakrishnan, party-in-charge of Kerala said he was ignorant of what was happening in Kerala BJP. All of us who have been deputed by the central leadership are in the dark about the goings on in the party. Let this e;ection be over. We will do something to rejuvenate the party,” said Radhakrishnan.
With the internal fightings in the BJP coming out in the open, the fight for supremacy in Kerala is between the CPI(M) led LDF and the Congress-led UDF. “It seems Amit Shah’s dream of Congress-mukt Bharat would remain unfulfilled while the BJP in the State would become more Congressised in days to come,” said Rajan, himself a vintage Congress leader.