Kummanam Rajasekharan during a protest march. Photo: Rijo JosephWhen Yuva Morcha state vice-president K.T. Jayakrishnan was hacked to death by political opponents in 1999, he owed money to many persons. The BJP leader belonged to a well-off family but he had to take on debts for party work.
The tragedy was fresh in the memory of V.K. Sajeevan, the BJP’s candidate in Thalassery in last year’s Assembly election, when he lashed out at the state leaders during a meeting in which the recent scams came up for discussion: “You are indulging in all these by stepping on the blood of the martyrs. Lest you forget!”
The words burned like coal. The other leaders looked away regardless of their group loyalties.
The BJP leadership faces a crisis of credibility in Kerala. The state leaders have lost their standing before the national leadership.
A few months ago, M. Venkaiah Naidu was all praise for the Kerala cadre when he addressed a multitude on the Kozhikode beach as part of the party's national council meeting. He lauded the leaders and cadres who worked for the party without any hope of coming to power in the state in the near future.
Even prime minister Narendra Modi shared the same feeling when he tweeted to congratulate O. Rajagopal on being the party’s first MLA in Kerala. On May 19, 2016 he said that the party’s patient work has paid off in Kerala and the party would be the voice of the people.
That reputation lies in ruin now.
Modi was raging when he was told about the shame caused by some leaders who took a bribe of about Rs 6 crore for granting medical affiliation to colleges. He had shared the sentiment with a few of his confidantes in the state.
After all, Modi’s government has been trying to project an image of clean governance.
The Kerala unit of the party has undone all those rhetoric. The state leaders must be a bit embarrassed by the resolution passed at the state committee meeting in Palakkad in April. “The central government’s uncompromising stand has earned international praise. The Left Democratic Front government in Kerala should make the Modi government a role model,” the resolution read.
Some of the leaders now live in fear of a probe by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
The central leadership is peeved at the state for obvious reasons. A campaign to highlight the Kerala unit’s struggle has been marred by corruption charges.
An RSS top-level meeting attended by general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi in Nagpur in March estimated that about 250 workers have been killed in Kerala. Around 150 such meetings were organized across India to shed light on the Kerala unit.
The RSS and BJP top brass may have to rethink their strategy of projecting the Kerala unit in the light of the recent scams.
The central leadership is unhappy about the works of B.L. Santhosh and H. Raja, the top leaders in charge of Kerala. The RSS is disappointed because the show is run by its nominees including state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, general secretaries M. Ganesh and K. Subhash.
A meeting of RSS pranta pracharak P.N. Harikrishnan and BJP general secretary Ramlal assumes significance in this backdrop.
The taint has also derailed the planned expansion of the NDA in Kerala. Party general secretary Ram Madhav and Bhupinder Singh Yadav may be put in charge of the state affairs.
Everybody is waiting to see whose heads will roll. The party, however, does not want to give the opposition more ammo when Parliament is in session.
A purge may not be farther anyway. The question is, who will lead the party unit. The party is worried that its bet on Rajasekharan has misfired.
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