The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national leadership has dealt a blow to the warring factions in the State party, appointing P.S. Sreedharan Pillai for a second time as BJP State president.
Mr. Pillai, who was State president of the party from 2003-06, has been keeping away from the faction feud raging in the party. He now faces the arduous challenge of bringing about a rapprochement between the two factions and also taking the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the State as a cohesive whole to the Lok Sabha polls.
Significantly, the BJP leadership has also given V. Muralidharan, former State BJP president and now Rajya Sabha member, charge of Andhra Pradesh. The two simultaneous appointments might, thus, have a message for the factions in the State. While, on the one hand, Mr. Pillai’s appointment marks rejection of the claims of the two factions that had put forward the names of State general secretary K. Surendran or former president P.K. Krishnadas for the job, it could also mean further interventionist gestures from the national leadership during the run-up to the general elections.
Mr. Pillai himself told the media that though he was never in the race for the president job, he considered his being picked up as an opportunity to take everyone along and also reach out to different communities. The BJP in Kerala has been remaining rudderless for the past two months after party State president Kummanam Rajasekharan was plucked out and sent to Mizoram as Governor, not to speak of the corruption charges that rocked the party in the preceding few months.
Stirring up the party machinery that has been in stupor in the absence of a strong leadership is no easy task. The schism in the State leadership has percolated to the grassroots level and the rank and file remain disenchanted by the leadership’s failure in emerging as a powerful opposition against the State government and the CPI(M).
The NDA allies, mainly the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), are an unhappy lot. Mr. Pillai would have to to keep the flock together. Negotiating with the RSS State leadership, which was unhappy with Mr. Rajasekharan’s sudden removal as State president, too would not be easy.