The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national leadership has named K. Surendran as State president.
Mr. Surendran’s name was announced by national president J. P. Nadda in Delhi on Saturday. Mr.Surendran who was in the forefront of the Sabarimala agitation will be the youngest leader to head the party in the State.
Following the party decision to appoint P. S. Sreedharan Pillai as Mizoram Governor, the State unit witnessed intense faction feud, but Mr.Surendran’s prominent presence in the agitations, mainly the one against the Supreme Court granting permission for entry of women of child-bearing age to Sabarimala, helped him gain an edge over other contenders.
Mr.Surendran had been officiating as BJP State general secretary for the past 10 years.
Born on March 10, 1970 as the son of Kunhiraman and Kalyani into a family of farmers at Ulliyeri in Kozhikode in1970, he took to politics through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. He turned a full-time worker of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in due course and went on to become the Wayanad district president, State general secretary and State president of the youth wing. He gained popularity among the public as well as party workers by heading the Sabarimala agitation and was imprisoned for 22 days. He contested the Lok Sabha elections twice from Kasaragod and to the Assembly twice from Manjeswaram. He lost the last Assembly election by 89 votes.
