EP visited Delhi determined to join BJP, but changed plan after phone call: Sobha Surendran

Thiruvananthapuram: BJP state vice-president Sobha Surendran's revelation that LDF convener EP Jayarajan had met Prakash Javadekar was a bolt from the blue for the CPM and the LDF in Kerala. In an interview with Malayala Manorama, Sobha Surendran shed more light on the now-controversial meeting.

You have claimed that you were the first to talk with Jayarajan. Did you facilitate his meeting with Prakash Javadekar?
No. I talked with Jayarajan before Javadekar took charge of Kerala. My information on Jayarajan-Javadekar rendezvous is based on the details being revealed now.

When and where did you meet Jayarajan?
We met three times. Nandakumar visited my nephew's house at Wadakanchery and my rented house in Thrissur twice. He put the phone on speaker mode to make me listen to his conversation with Jayarajan. I demanded that I wanted to speak to him directly.

My first meeting with Jayarajan was at Nandakumar's residence at Vennala in January 2023. I realised that Jayarajan had made the decision. Based on this realisation, I contacted the national leadership in Delhi, and they agreed to meet Jayarajan.

Do you mean that Jayarajan visited Delhi?
Yes. The three of us met at Hotel Lalith. He seemed determined to join the BJP. We might have talked for about five-six minutes over tea before he received a phone call. He looked tensed and his body language changed after the call.

He withdrew the decision to join the BJP the next day. 'We'll have to extend it,' he then told me. He was to meet the most prominent BJP leader in the country. I don't know who had contacted him over the phone.

Did he mention any reason to quit the CPM and join the BJP?
He spoke about his pain and dislike over MV Govindan, much junior to him, becoming the party's state secretary. He said he had suffered more for the party.

Why did the three of you meet again at Ramanilayam in Thrissur despite the failed Delhi mission?
I went since Nandakumar asked for a meeting. I told him that I was not interested in the matter anymore. However, Nandakumar insisted that Jayarajan wanted to explain what had happened. The meeting was on the day MV Govindan's yatra reached Thrissur.

EP explained the mental conflict he had been undergoing and said he and his family were under threat. He said the plan (to join BJP) should be put on hold for the time being. He said he would inform me later.

Later, while I was in Kochi, I received a phone call. The caller gave me the name of a hotel and asked me to meet Jayarajan there. I met Jayarajan's son at the hotel. It was not a chance meeting in which I took his phone number, as Jayarajan now claims.

What is your connection with Nandakumar? Some people feel that you spoke about EP to silence Nandakumar.
Nandakumar came to me as per Jayarajan's instruction. Nandakumar has already said that the new conference was held after speaking to EP. Who was behind 'Dallal' (Nandakumar) levelling baseless allegations against me amid the peak election campaign? It made me reveal about EP's move.

You have a rebel image in the BJP. Why should Jayarajan choose you to discuss his move to join the BJP?
He must have realised my strong links with the prominent personalities in the central leadership. Or, maybe, Nandakumar might have convinced him.

The BJP is against you making public details of confidential meetings?
Nine prominent leaders of various political parties in Kerala had discussed joining the BJP. I did not reveal anything about those meetings due to political decency. I was forced to speak about Jayarajan in public since the CPM fielded Dallal against me.