THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The headless BJP in the state is looking for a saviour who may be chosen by national president Amit Shah on Monday. Mr Shah will be guided by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav in zeroing in on a candidate from the hopefuls comprising R. Balasankar, former editor of RSS mouthpiece, Organiser; A. Jayakumar, former national organising secretary of Vigyan Bharathi; and J. Nandakumar, national convener of Prajna Pravah.
After banishing Mr Kummanam Rajasekharan from the state, the rival faction led by Mr V. Muraleedharan MP had hoped to take control of the party by appointing general secretary K. Surendran as the next president. However, the state RSS leadership blocked the move. "The stand against Mr Kummanam in Mizoram by the Christians was also not anticipated,” said a state BJP leader.
Another leader said that the media in Mizoram had been churning out stories about Mr Kummanam’s activities as a Hindutva leader since 1983 making his life miserable there. He alleged that the local media was being fed by vested interests, which should be probed. The People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) has found him unacceptable due to his hardline Hindutva profile. Mr Kummanam will arrive in New Delhi on Sunday evening to attend the three-day Governors’ meet called by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapathi Bhavan from Monday onwards.
BJP sources told DC that the Catholic Church here had tried to pacify their counterparts in Mizoram. But a Church representative of Baselios Cardinal Cleemis, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Malankara Catholic Church, said that he was not aware whether the imbroglio had been solved as the archbishop was in Germany now. Mr Kummanam will arrive in Kottayam on June 17 coinciding with the inauguration of the new building of the party mouthpiece, Janmabhoomi. His trusted lieutenant, Praveen, who is an RSS worker, has not accompanied him to Mizoram. Instead, another employee from Janmabhoomi’s New Delhi office, Ashish, has left for Mizoram.
