The Congress has announced unconditional support to V.R. Vijayakumar, estranged BJP leader who is contesting the local body polls in the Thripunithura municipality as an independent candidate from the Ambalam ward (No.38).
Mr. Vijayakumar, former mandalam president of the BJP in Thripunithura and opposition leader in the outgoing council, is taking on BJP candidate and sitting councillor of Ambalam ward, Radhika Varma, and CPI(M)’s R.V. Vasudevan.
Mr. Vijayakumar is part of a newly-formed V4Thripunithura group under whose banner 10 candidates, all formerly members the BJP, are contesting independently.
A.V. Baiju, another outgoing councillor of the BJP, is contesting as part of the V4Thripunithura formation from the Panackal ward.
Accusing the BJP of meting out a raw deal to the old guard and the workers who had been with the party, which put up a stellar performance in Thripunithura by clinching 13 wards in the 2015 local body polls, Mr. Vijayakumar said he was open to receiving anyone’s support.
Mr. Baiju said while Mr. Vijayakumar had been with the BJP for decades, he (Mr. Baiju) was relatively a fresher and he had chosen to stand with Mr. Vijayakumar after seeing the way the ordinary workers had been treated within the party.
Seena Suresh, an outgoing BJP councillor, is the convener of the new formation. “Our aim is to bring development to Thripunithura,” says Mr. Vijayakumar.
Sreekuttan Thundathil, mandalam president of the BJP, however, said that Mr. Vijayakumar and several others were still part of the BJP and the party was open to hold discussions with them. “They have to take the initiative and issues like false cases against senior leaders would have to be addressed if the discussions should make any headway,” he said.
