THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The leaderships of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) appear to be at loggerheads. Their joint leadership meeting held in Kochi on Monday witnessed a ‘blame game’ over the assembly elections.
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan felt the ire of the RSS over the way his predecessor V. Muraleedharan controlled the party while BJP leaders blamed the RSS for hijacking selection of candidates. Mr Rajasekharan and three party general secretaries attended the meeting with the RSS top brass including office bearers of over 50 allied organisations.
It saw Mr Rajasekharan being asked why he was remaining a ‘rubber stamp’. At the same time, RSS national leadership has asked its state counterpart to get down to their job of strengthening shakhas instead of reining in the BJP. “Mr Rajasekaran has been asked to take a firm stand on party activities," RSS sources told DC.
"Mr Muraleedharan headed the election committee and he, along with general secretary K. R. Umakanthan, had not dispersed the election funds to the candidates on time despite the dictum of national president Amit Shah.”
At the meeting, RSS leadership asked Mr Rajasekharan why Mr Muraleedharan was appointed as the chairperson despite his previous stint in the last Assembly election, Lok Sabha election and then the local bodies elections where it is alleged that he is yet to settle the accounts.
BJP’s top brass complained that junior level RSS workers were on the job at the booth, Panchayat and Mandalam levels when in fact the senior leaders were working at the other end, which sent a wrong message to the voters.
BJP general secretary M. T. Ramesh and former BJP state president P. K. Krishna Das who contested from Aranmula and Kattakada also raised the issue of the partisan attitude of Mr Muraleedharan during the campaigning. BJP national general secretary in charge of the State, H. Raja, had also received several complaints from the State.
