Tug of war in BJP Kerala spills over to social media

The tug of war among BJP leaders in Kerala for comfortable Lok Sabha seats has spilled over into the social media.

As reports of BJP’s firebrand leader K Surendran being denied the Pathanamthitta seat came in, a widespread campaign was unleashed on the social media. The posts claimed that the saffron party general secretary should be the obvious choice for Pathanamthitta as he was jailed for almost a month in connection with protests against the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Ayyappa shrine.

BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai, who had staked claims for the Pathanamthitta seat, seems to have also lost his grip on the seat owing to the social media attack. Moreover, the RSS was also learnt to be pushing for Surendran's candidature for Pathanamthitta, a constituency in which the BJP-RSS have high hopes post-Sabarimala agitation.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Alphonse Kannanthanam has openly expressed his displeasure for rejecting his demands for Pathanamthitta, Kottayam or Thrissur seats. He has also rejected suggestions to contest from Kollam seat.

As the tug of war continues, the BJP is not able to finalise candidates for Kerala, even as the Congress-led UDF and CPM-led LDF wrapped up the candidate selection. This has also triggered concerns among party workers that the advantage the saffron party gained over the Sabarimala issue might be lost owing to the wrangling among its leaders.