The state RSS leadership has asked Mr Muraleedharan to contest from Kozhikode
V. Muraleedharan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP state president V. Muraleedharan may be on his way out as elections to the post are due next month. Mr Muraleedharan, who is in his second term, is said to be eyeing the Kazhakkoottam Assembly seat.
The state and national-level leaders of the BJP and RSS are looking for a leader acceptable to all groups as factionalism has continued to dog the party during his stewardship. Mr Muraleedharan had secured a second term much against the wish of RSS state secretary and Prantha Karyavahak P. Gopalankutty Master.
The state RSS leadership has asked Mr Muraleedharan to contest from Kozhikode, which is his home town, and not from Thiruvananthapuram district. Two major allegations against him were that he has not been regularly holding state committee meetings and that he had developed the National Yuva Co-operative Society Ltd as a financial organisation outside the BJP which aimed at youth empowerment.
Sources also told Deccan Chronicle that he had not taken any initiative when some leading personalities had expressed their wish to join the party. “Muraleedharan has been erratic in holding two-day state committee meetings for fear of more allegations being raised from his colleagues. He is not interested in holding discussions within the party and would wind up the meeting by evening. Earlier the core committee decided crucial issues. But now senior leaders like O. Rajagopal, P. S. Sreedharan Pillai and C. K. Padmanabhan are not being taken into confidence,” said a BJP leader.
Mr Muraleedharan, who began his political career as pracharak of ABVP over 20 years ago, rose up to vice-president of Nehru Yuva Kendra in 1999 and director general in 2002.
His decision to get married snowballed into a controversy forcing the leadership to keep him aside.
During his exile, he served as the secretary to Ms Neena Pillai, socialite and wife of the late biscuit king Rajan Pillai. It was Mr P. P. Mukundan, then organizing secretary of the BJP, who promoted him to vice-president during Mr P. K. Krishnadas’s tenure as state president. It is another matter that Mr Muraleedharan snubbed Mr Mukundan recently by offering to readmit him to the party with a ‘missed call.’
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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