Resentment may cast shadow over Kerala BJP's electoral hopes

Casting a shadow over the BJP's hopes to improve its electoral presence in Kerala during the upcoming local body and Assembly elections, the resentment brewing over party positions has come out in the open.

The national and state leadership are learned to be scratching their heads to find an amicable solution.

The most serious voice of dissent was that of senior leader Sobha Surendran, who was even considered as a state president probable once. Ever since K Surendran was made the state president, Sobha has been quite inactive after she was sidelined and made the state vice president.

Sobha finally broke her silence recently by openly stating that she had conveyed her displeasure to the party leadership. She said that she was a member of the BJP national executive committee but she was made the state vice president without her consultation and that it was against the precedents.

Close on the heels of this development, BJP national council member P M Velayudhan alleged that K Surendran had ditched him by offering him key posts in the party to gain his support for the state president's chair. Velayudhan also said that people like him and Sobha, who had been working for the party for years, were being sidelined when people from other parties joined the BJP.

While Sobha Surendran came out in the open against the party leadership, K Surendran, in his initial reaction to the media, said that those were internal matters of the party and hence he did not want to have any public discussion on them. However, with more leaders coming out against the leadership, Surendran was forced to break his silence. He said that he would personally talk to all those who have any sorts of concerns and would try to address the issues.

The resentment among the party's long-time leaders aggravated following the appointment of A P Abdullakutty and Tom Vadakkan as national vice president and national spokesperson respectively. Both of them had recently joined the BJP from the Congress. Senior Kerala BJP leaders like Kummanam Rajasekharan and Sobha Surendran were expecting posts at the national level.

Sources in the BJP said that the national leadership would soon be taking steps to appease all the prominent leaders with any sort of concerns by even offering them posts at the national level. The BJP, which got one win in Kerala for the first time in 2016, is eyeing to improve its position. In the local body polls as well, the BJP has high hopes from the Thiruvananthapuram city corporation which it had lost to the Left Front by just eight seats.