Fissures in Kerala BJP out in open as woman leader skips party meet  

Shobha Surendran, the firebrand woman leader of the BJP who was the party state general secretary and a member of the national executive of the party, has skipped the party leadership meet at Thrissur attended by the party in charge of the state CP Radhakrishnan and a galaxy of leaders.

Shobha has been sulking ever since K Surendran was inducted as the party state president. Surendran and Shobha held diametrically opposite positions in the BJP scheme of things in Kerala.

While Shobha was appointed the party state vice president in March 2020 when Surendran assumed office, she refused to accept it stating that it was a demotion from her position as party state general secretary. However Surendran and his mentor, Union minister of state for external affairs and former state president of BJP, V Muraleedharan did not budge even after there was pressure from all corners including the state leadership of the RSS.

Surendran while speaking to media persons at Thrissur said "Shobha is very much part of our team. She may not have attended the meeting owing to some personal issues."

Interestingly, Shobha is a good orator which endears her to the party cadres and sympathisers. She has always increased her vote share right from contesting the Palakkad assembly seat on a BJP ticket to the Attingal Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general elections. She increased the party's vote share from 10 percent to 24 percent clocking a total of 2.5 lakh odd votes from the 85,000 votes it had in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The party office bearers above the level of party district general secretaries are participating in the Thrisssur meeting and are conducting preliminary discussions on party candidates.

Sources said the BJP is contemplating to field former state president and former Mizoram governor, Kummanam Rajashekharan from the Nemom seat in Thiruvananthapuram hitherto represented by veteran leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal who may not contest citing age-related issues.

Former state president PK Krishnadas is likely to contest from Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram and party state general secretary C Krishnakumar from Malampuzha in Palakkad district. Superstar Suresh Gopi is likely to be fielded from Thiruvananthapuram central seat. BJP state president K Surendran has already informed the party leadership that he is not contesting the elections.

With the assembly elections likely to be held in the middle of April, the BJP leadership is having preparatory meetings. A meeting with the state RSS leadership was held on Wednesday.

BJP All India President JP Nadda is to reach the state on February 3 and will be here till February 4 and the party is likely to resolve the burning organizational issues during his visit. Nadda is also likely to meet the Christian religious heads as also the NSS and SNDP leaderships, the two powerful organisations of the Nair and Ezhava communities.