Veiled threat of defections of senior leaders and a string of resignations by local leaders in the past week have apparently seemed to be rocking the otherwise groupism-infested State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
This dissidence has emerged when the party is going hammer and tongs against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on a series of allegations, including the gold smuggling case and the arrest of Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPI(M) general secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, in connection with alleged financial transactions for peddling drugs in Bengaluru.
The latest episode involves State vice president and national executive member Shobha Surendran and former vice president P.M. Velayudhan raising a banner of revolt against State president K. Surendran for side-lining them in the party affairs.
Their grumblings come close on the heels of an embarrassing incident of alleged breach of protocol by Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan by helping a PR professional Smitha Menon to participate in the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Indian Ocean Rim Association held in Abu Dhabi last November.
The charge
Both the disgruntled leaders have alleged that the official faction led by Muraleedharan-Surendran duo were not only depriving them of key responsibilities but also trying to cut them to size, especially when the party was gearing up for the three-tier local bodies polls to be held later this year and the Assembly polls next year.
Their concerns and complaints have been aired to the Central leadership. Incidentally both of them are not associated with the faction led by former president and national council member P.K. Krishnadas.
However, the official faction while dismissing these allegations have put up a brave front saying that they had apprised the Central leadership of these developments. Significantly the State leadership enjoys the wholehearted support of the party national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh who was instrumental in anointing Mr. Surendran to the post of party chief.
Placatory efforts
Sources said that the Central leadership may try to politically placate Ms. Surendran, who is already a Director (Independent) of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, a group company of Indian Oil Corporation. However it does not want such internal pressures to disturb the equilibrium of the party apparatus for the time being.
As such the RSS State leadership which has an uneasy love-hate relationship with the BJP leadership has been maintaining a stoic silence on these issues.
