The BJP is facing a massive revolt by the cadre in States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. While resentment against the present State leadership is at its peak in Kerala, Brahmins in neighboring Tamil Nadu are cut up with the Hindutva party because of them being sidelined. V Mythreyan, who recently joined the BJP from the AIADMK, is yet to get an invitation from Chennai’s Kamalalayam, the Tamil Nadu headquarters of the BJP.
Having failed in its attempt to take roots in Kerala, the BJP is on a mission to invoke divine power to reenergize the party in the State and to ensure its victory in the next Lok Sabha polls when 20 seats would be at stake. It has also targeted the 2026 assembly elections with the intention to anoint K Surendran, the present State chief as chief minister.
An eight-day long Sahasra Chandika Yaagam and Maha Kiratha Rudra Yagnam held last month saw 160 ‘accomplished’ priests picked from all over the country reciting mantras and performing pujas to ward off all “evil forces” preventing and retarding the progress of Surendran’s passage to the Chief Minister’s Office. The BJP in Kerala with hardly 10 per cent votes is confident of forming a ministry led by the party and surendran if it manages 32 seats out of the 141 seats at stake in the State.
The Rs 3 crore worth pooja saw the office bearers of the party including Surendran lining up at Thottathil Mana seeking divine blessings. Sasthrusarman Namboodirippadu, the head of Thottathil Mana led the battery of priests in performing the havan and the devotees are offered sumptuous breakfast, lunch and dinner.
B Gopalakrishnan, vice-president of Kerala BJP said he did not attend the pooja or heaven in any of the days. “These are all futile exercises. The party should take up the cause of the people and fight for the same instead of wasting money and energy on these obscurantist policies.
The people of Kerala are intelligent enough to understand the good works done by any political outfits,” Gopalakrishnan told The Pioneer. Sandeep Warrier, former spokesman of the party, said he does not believe in these measures being followed by the party leadership in Kerala.
“We are all trying to work out solutions to make life easy for the people of the State who are facing severe hardship like corruption in high places and nepotism,” said Warrier.
The reports that the homam and havan were part of the BJP’s mission to weaken and Muslim and Christian communities have upset the latter as the party is yet to find a common route through which it could sail with the minorities. More than 12,000 coconuts were broken by priests on the concluding day of the Homam to invoke divine blessings.
B L Santhosh , national secretary of the BJP who is the south India chief of the party is making a visit to Kerala to take stock of the post-pooja scenario and suggest more such measures for the future.