THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major blow to BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, his national counterpart Amit Shah has asked him to shed his image as a messiah of the environment on the eve of environment day, and lead the party 'politically'. Mr Shah briefed this at the crucial meeting with him and six general secretaries which included two RSS nominees, M. Ganesh and K. Subhash, hours before he concluded his visit. When he returned to New Delhi on Sunday after three days of almost round-the-clock meetings, the state leadership had a sigh of relief. But the days ahead are not going to be smooth, as he had given an ultimatum to deliver.
The last meeting turned out to be a dressing-down for Mr Rajasekharan and his team where he gave out a game plan for the run up to the Lok Sabha elections on which other state units had started working since December. BJP sources told DC that his diktat had created a huge dent in Mr Rajasekharan's image as an environmental activist. “He told him that his priority has to be to lead the party effectively towards the elections. Twice a month, Mr Rajasekaran and Mr Ganesh will have to visit all the districts and camp there for two days. He and his team might be happy with getting one MLA, but not the national leadership,” said a BJP source.
Amit Shah will be back in Kerala on October 22, which is his birthday, to evaluate the performance of the in-charges who have been assigned specific duties. He told the leaders that birthday is a day of happiness and urged them not to give him a chance to snap at them. Amit Shah has given an ultimatum to Kummanam and his team consecutively for the third day that if they do not deliver the results, drastic action will be taken against them. At the full time BJP workers meeting, Amit Shah told the strong 65 member team that they have to strengthen the booth committees.
He also told the BJP leaders that there should not be any division between the minority and majority communities as already there is a strong sentiments towards the BJP. In the meeting with department and project heads and Lok Sabha constituency in-charges, Amit Shah has warned that under no circumstances would he tolerate lethargy or lackadaisical attitude by them. He has also warned those leaders who are advocates of promoting factionalism within the party.
