Thiruvananthapuram: BJP state general secretary Sobha Surendran is likely to enter the fray in the Vengara by-poll.
The BJP core committee and the NDA meetings decided that a state-level BJP leader should be fielded in Vengara.
The NDA leaders said that since a local NDA candidate would fare badly in Vengara, a leader of Sobha's stature should contest from there. The BJP core committee opted for her, though she was absent. State president Kummanam Rajasekharan told reporters that a final decision will be taken soon. "The announcement will be made by the BJP central leadership," he said.
The Bharat Dharma Jana Sena leaders stayed away from the meeting protesting against the neglect meted out to the party by the BJP national leadership over its demands.
Apart from Mr Kummanam, former presidents O. Rajagopal, P. S. Sreedharan Pillai and P. K. Krishnadas, state general secretaries M. T. Ramesh and A. N. Radhakrishnan and organisational general secretary M. Ganesh also attended the core committee meeting.
The meeting also assessed the possibilities of fielding Yuva Morcha state president K. P. Prakash Babu and former Malappuram district president K. Jinachandran in Vengara. The BJP had polled only 7,055 candidates in the last Assembly election in Vengara.
