THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP legislator O. Rajagopal came under fire from the state BJP leadership for not defending the party or Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reforms in Kerala Legislative Assembly. A section of leaders alleged that he was silent when issues like self-financing college management’s fee structure and political violence between CPM-RSS was being discussed in the Assembly. Ever since Mr Rajagopal went and congratulated Pinarayi Vijayan at the AKG Centre on being elected as the Chief Minister, he had ruffled the feathers of party leaders.
Later, party colleagues reprimanded Mr Rajagopal for casting his vote in favour of Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, where he was slapped with a gag order. “It was unfair of Mr Rajagopal to cast his vote in favour of the Speaker when the BJP had taken a stand against the politics of violence by the CPM,” said a senior BJP leader. A top BJP leader said that at the party general secretaries and party president meeting at Thrissur, Mr Rajagopal’s issue was discussed. “BJP state leadership is kept in the dark as to what is going to be discussed in the Assembly. So the meeting has decided to request party national president Amit Shah to put forth a word to Mr Rajagopal so as to take the state leadership into confidence,” said a top BJP leader.
On Wednesday when Mr Vijayan informed the Assembly that the CPM is ready to hold the all party meet against the political violence in Kannur, Mr Rajagopal spoke for almost a minute. He recalled that when the Thalassery communal riots had happened during 1971, it was the CPM which played spoilsport and did not take measures to control the violence. “Despite the central BJP and CPM leaderships taking initiative to bring peace in the region, local Kannur CPM leaders were not keen about it. It is pathetic to see the fate of women in Kannur who have lost their loved ones,” said Mr Rajagopal.
