It is well known that BJP has a perception problem in Kerala. In a state where the majority community does not hold any serious grudges against the minorities, the party is generally seen as a divisive communal force.
Worse, it does not have a leader of a stature who could make people forget these distortions. So, how was the party to make itself appealing to a largely middle-class Kerala? The general consensus was that the party should touch the aspirational side of the Malayali.
This is why the state unit of the BJP has been busy shopping for former judges, IAS officers, DGPs and top executives to its fold. The BJP has a limited use for these high-end luminaries. They are to be used just the way lights are used during film shoots; to throw more shine and lustre on the principal actors, the party leaders, but would remain out of the picture.
But the legendary E Sreedharan, India's 'metroman', has upset the BJP's plans. He was not interested in being just a spotlight. He wanted to be the person under the spotlight.
Metroman's surprise
Taking the party unit by surprise, Sreedharan declared himself as the BJP's chief minister candidate. The disciplined visionary behind the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro Rail wanted the control for himself. “If I am projected as the chief minister, there will be a landslide switch over to the BJP,” he kept telling in subsequent interviews.
When Onmanorama talked to him over the phone on Monday, he said something similar. “If a person of my standing, reputation and image joins the BJP, it would transform the image of the BJP itself,” he said. However, he said it was for the BJP to decide his place in the party.
“I am not the kind of person who will ask for favours. Even in my professional life, I have never asked for any special privileges,” Sreedharan said. He also said that the BJP had not given him any assurances.
When asked whether it would make any sense if he was not projected as the Chief Minister candidate and remained a mere party worker, he just said: “I think the party realises that my joining will make a lot of change in their image.”
Political whack BJP was unprepared for
This is not subtle, and so unlike a seasoned shrewd politician. The declaration of intent was so swift and direct, so stripped of any devious calculation, that it caught the BJP off guard. The party has still not been able to formulate a response to Sreedharan's strategy.
BJP's state vice president A N Radhakrishnan took cover behind pre-election procedures. “Such decisions (on who is the BJP's chief minister candidate) will be taken up only later. At this stage we have not even drawn up the candidate list. The list will then have to be put up to the BJP Election Committee and then would have to be vetted by the core committee. The central approval will come after this. It is only after these procedures would we think of other things,” he said.
Radhakrishnan, however, was careful to add: "He is a great man and he can say anything."
Et tu, Sreedharan?
Top sources in the BJP said Sreedharan's call to project him as the face of the BJP was unexpected. “It is true that top state leaders talked to him but we never thought he would stake a claim for the chief minister's post. We know that it was not the statement of a power-hungry person but of a skilful technocrat who knows what he wants. The state leadership will not be open to the idea,” said a BJP core team member on the condition of anonymity.
The Padma Vibhushan recipient's open declaration that his presence would spruce up the BJP's image has not gone down well with the top leadership of the BJP state unit. It was widely understood within the party as Sreedharan's open expression of a lack of confidence in the present crop of leaders.
The source said a decision on Sreedharan's position in the party could be taken in 30 minutes if the party acknowledged what he termed “Sreedharan's transformative potential”.
The source also said there was a feeling among cadres that Sreedharan at the helm would be beneficial to the party. “Only if Sreedharan is made the chief minister candidate can the BJP create a stir and cause a decisive shift of votes to the BJP. Otherwise his entry would just be a cosmetic exercise whose shine will wear away in no time,” the source said.
E Sreedharan MLA
Though Sreedharan is convinced of his power to draw votes and catapult the BJP to a historic win, he has also foreseen the possibility of BJP coming third and he ending up as just an MLA. “To some extent, it is possible,” he told Onmanorama. “Still, I would accept it. If I have decided to enter politics, I will have to. I still can do something for my state,” he said.
Leave alone the chief minister's post, the BJP will have to grapple with leadership issues even if it comes third. “If Sreedharan is the sole winner, then there is no issue. What if there are two or three winners along with Sreedharan, say Kummanam (Rajasekharan), K Surendran (state president) and V Muraleedharan (union minister). In that case, who will we choose as the party's parliamentary party leader?,” the top BJP source said. “Sreedharan is taller than any politician. But can our leaders see it that way,” he said.
An un-mass entry
Already, there is a feeling within the party that Sreedharan has not been given his due. “Sreedharan's entry to the BJP should have been organised as a mass affair, in the presence of either Narendra Modi or Amit Shah. What happened was a tame event in some obscure place in the presence of some junior minister (minister for power R K Singh),” a former general secretary of the party said.
He has not even been inducted into the committee that is drawing up the BJP's manifesto. All this suggests that the BJP intended only to borrow the brilliance that Sreedharan emits and wanted the person out of the picture.
