How Kummanam lost out to rising star Surendran

Thiruvananthapuram: The attempts by Union minister of state for external affairs V. Muraleedharan to promote his protégé and BJP state general secretary K. Surendran over the rival faction led by former state president P. K. Krishnadas have led to the last minute change in the name of the party's candidate for Vattiyoorkav byelection. It has resulted in senior leader Kummanam Rajasekharan being dropped, which has not gone down well with the RSS leadership in the state, party sources say.

Veteran leader and party MLA O. Rajagopal had batted for Mr Rajasekharan as Vattiyoorkavu candidate even on Sunday morning. But within the gap of a few hours, the central leadership's announcement of Thiruvananthapuram district president S. Suresh as the candidate caught everyone unawares. A visibly disturbed Mr Rajasekh-aran maintained that he was in the dark as to why he was sidelined at the eleventh hour.

The BJP state camp is reportedly unhappy over the way a leader of Mr Rajasekharan's stature was humiliated. A senior BJP leader told DC that there is a move to project Mr Surendran as the next emerging leader in the state.

"The Muraleedharan faction is emerging stronger by the day against the Krishnadas faction," the leader said.  "Party's national executive member Sobha Surendran was not keen to contest from Konni as majority of the core committee leaders maintained that Mr Surendran had wrested the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat using pressure tactics.”

Mr Surendran, however, rubbished the claims and said such reports were aimed at destroying the morale of the party and its workers. He said a younger candidate, S. Suresh, was required to contest from Vattiyoorkavu.

The Muraleedharan faction had also rooted for BJP state secretary V. V. Rajesh in Vattiyoorkavu, who was suspended from the party allegedly over his role in the medical college scam. But the Krishnadas faction remained firm that they will not take part in the campaigning if he was fielded. "This led the central BJP leadership to zero in on the number two in the panel, Mr Suresh," a top BJP leader said. "A section of the BJP leadership is out to ensure a victory for the BJP in Konni and not in Vattiyoorkavu, for obvious reasons.”