A section of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala unit has appeared to be miffed with exclusion of senior leaders in the recent rejig of the party at the national level.
What has rattled this prominent section is not only the exclusion of these leaders but also the elevation of A.P. Abdullakutty as a national vice president. All along the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) State leadership has been rooting for former State presidents Kummanam Rajasekharan and P.K. Krishnadas to be part of the Central team.
Already some leaders have overtly and covertly raised the issue and apprised BJP all-India president J.P. Nadda of a group owing allegiance to one of factions getting prominence at the helm at the State and national levels. The ongoing rumblings had also come up for discussion at the party forum, a BJP functionary said.
Another issue is the non-inclusion of Keralite R. Balashankar, co-convener of training and publication of the party in Delhi. He was earlier the editor of RSS ideological journal Organiser for 11 years and was also head of the BJP national Intellectual Cell till 2015. He has been credited with the idea of projecting Narendra Modi as the face of the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
RSS leaders feel that the Central leadership had systematically ignored some of the respected and popular leaders from the State. And the relegation of leaders might have a bearing on the Assembly polls next year.
All these years, the BJP Central leadership has not appointed a leader who has good relationship with the NSS, the SNDP and the Church in the State. Neither it has not been able to nurture a leader who has a core support base among the Nair or the Thiyya/Ezhava communities, the sources said.
The resentment comes when the Central leadership has started wooing leaders from other parties with the elevation of Mr. Abdullakutty at the national level. Perhaps it may want the State unit to have a multi-polar image ahead of the Assembly polls. But the national leadership has to set the State unit in order before trying to appease aspiring turncoats, he said.