Thiruvananthapuram: The KPCC has rubbished media reports about BJP president Amit Shah's attempts to poach two top Congress leaders, exploiting discontent among a dozen leaders getting neglected after the last year's state elections. Rumours have been rife for more than a year now that Mr Shah was eyeing leaders from both UDF and LDF. When Kerala Congress (Mani) chairman K. M. Mani decided to leave the UDF, there were attempts to woo him and his leaders. Mr Mani had to put it on hold temporarily for opposition within.
Now the grapevine is that Mr Shah has entrusted Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi with the task of roping in a prominent Congress leader from Kannur and a legislator from Thiruvananthapuram. KPCC president M. M. Hassan described it as old wine in new bottle. “None from Congress will join BJP, which he has been trying for a while with little success," he told DC.
"The Congress leaders will not get into their sack. Neither are we interested in having any BJP leaders coming to us as they are highly corrupt.” When Mr Shah was here a few months ago, the BJP camp claimed prominent leaders from the Left would be joining them. But it turned out to be a damp squib as it could rope in only Venjaramoodu Sasi, former CPI Thiruvananthapuram district secretary who had since joined RSP (Kovoor Kunjumon faction). It was a huge let down for Mr Shah who had entrusted Kummanam Rajasekharan with the task. But the actor-turned-politician is donning the role of his spinmeister this time. He has also assigned Dharmendra, the minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, to take control of 12 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala that the saffron party targets to win in 2019.
