Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP national leadership is pushing state president Kummanam Rajasekharan to pursue a more aggressive political line. It is alleged that the soft-spoken Kummanam lacks the drive to lead his team of four general secretaries. BJP state leaders say that though Kummanam is a fighter, he is not fit to be in the hot seat of a politician as he is a simple person.
But he has the strong backing of the RSS leadership which is keen to field him from Thiruvananthapuram for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, though the central leadership favours actor Suresh Gopi.
A section of state BJP leaders alleges that the two RSS general secretaries in the BJP, M. Ganesh and K. Subash, are RSS rubber stamps who support Kummanam. Former state presidents like P. S. Sreedharan Pillai and C. K. Padmanabhan have been sidelined by him.
“From Dec 15 to 18, the BJP will organise a state camp at Charalkunnu where Kummanam will launch a pro-poor agitation aiming at the welfare of tribals, SC/ST and homeless people. He will lead the agitation along with tribal activist and NDA leader C. K. Janu,” said a top BJP leader.
The central leadership wants Kummanam to entrust more responsibilities to the four general secretaries. There is opposition to Kummanam’s predecessor, V. Muraleedharan who issues press releases daily to grab headlines and hopes to get a key post at the national level.
