‘Major surgery’ in the works for Kerala BJP

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP president Amit Shah is likely to perform “a major surgery” in the party’s Kerala unit in another attempt to stop infighting, said party insiders who refused to be named. Shah, who is scheduled to arrive on a day’s visit on Tuesday, is expected to discuss the issue of selecting the state president.

The post fell vacant after the appointment of Kummanam Rajasekharan as the governor of Mizoram. Shah will also review the party’s poll preparedness.

“Shah is likely to do a major surgery by bringing in a new face and easing out some of the leaders who are perpetual troublemakers. The state unit is in shambles and it has to start from scratch now,” said a senior leader who did not want to be identified.

There have been many rounds of discussions to select the state unit president but they have fallen flat after warring groups refused to budge from their positions. The RSS is also upset with the way Rajasekharan, a former pracharak, was eased out, said party sources. Shah will also meet the state RSS leaders.

BJP leaders, who refused to be named, said although Rajasekharan was appointed in December 2015 with a clear brief to end factional feud, he was unsuccessful. He was shunted out in the midst of Chengannur by-election in which the BJP finished third.

Upset with intense bickering, Shah has given an ultimatum to the state leaders to put their house in order and reportedly sought a report from V Muralidhar Rao, general secretary in-charge of Kerala, after his social media pages were flooded with complaints from workers.

“It is not the Congress, BJP or the SDPI that is preventing the BJP from growing but it is the party’s own leaders. Throw some of them out otherwise the party won’t survive in Kerala,” said one of the comments on Shah’s Facebook page.

The state unit is vertically divided into two groups — one led by Rajya Sabha MP V Muralidharan and other by former state president PK Krishnadas. The party had made Muralidharan an MP of the Upper House to wean him from state politics but it failed to end the squabbling.

In the last assembly election the party had managed 14% votes but later its prospects dwindled due to infighting.