Thiruvananthapuram: The honeymoon between SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan and the BJP leadership seems to be over with Mr Natesan getting no support from the latter in his trying times. He has been facing a dozen cases, including the one on micro-finance, but the BJP has ignored him after meeting its agenda in the Assembly elections by getting 10.5 percent vote share with his help.
The Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) leaders feel that the BJP leadership has not come to the aid of Mr Vellapally as expected. Sources told DC that Mr Vellapally was keeping his worries to himself. They claim that Mr Vellapally had not gained anything from the micro-finance scheme and that the respective Yogam union president and secretary in Adoor had committed the malpractices and were facing investigations.
“Unfortunately, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan has not supported Vellapally when he is in dire straits. Kummanam is acting as a ‘rubber stamp’ of the state RSS leadership,” said a leader close to Mr Vellapally.
BDJS sources told DC that before the Assembly elections, Mr Pinarayi Vijayan had offered to help Mr Vellapally get out of his troubles if he kept off the BJP, through a ‘sanyasi’ close to the CPM leader. But that did not work out.
But BJP general secretary M. T. Ramesh and former BJP state president P. K. Krishnadas told DC that they had condemned the LDF government’s move against Mr Vellapally and that Mr Kummanam was the first to react. Mr Ramesh maintained that the Vigilance case against Mr Vellapally was politically motivated. Mr Krishnadas said that he had strongly defended Mr Vellapally at a press conference in Alappuzha on July 18.
“The SNDP Yogam had repaid Rs 10 crore during 2003–2013 and another Rs 5 crore in 2014 with interest to the Kerala State Backward Classes Development Corporation. The Kerala State Rubber Co-operative Ltd (RUBCO), which comes under the CPM-controlled co-operative society, had taken a loan of Rs 660 crore from HUDCO and had defaulted the repayment. This has forced HUDCO not to lend any more loans in the state,” said Mr Krishnadas.
