BJP Kerala unit president K Surendran.
Credit: X/@surendranbjp
Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst resentment brewing in the BJP in Kerala following the setback for the party in the Palakkad assembly bypoll, there are reports that party state president K Surendran has offered to step down taking moral responsibility.
As per reports, Surendran communicated to the party's national leadership that he would step down. He also reportedly gave a complaint against party senior and woman leader Sobha Surendran and some local leaders of Palakkad for working against the interest of the party.
Reacting to reports, BJP national leader in charge of Kerala and former union minister Prakash Javadekar told DH, "nothing like that." He further added, "neither Palakkad nor Chelakkara (the two assembly seats that now went for by-poll) were BJP's sitting seats. We are trying to improve our performance in the next local body and assembly elections," he said.
The resentment in the party is likely to come up in a leadership meeting to be held this week to review the election results.
BJP, which was considering the Palakkad seat as one with high victory chances, suffered 6.7 per cent drop in vote share, from 35.34 per cent in 2021 to 28.63 per cent this time.
While BJP candidate 'Metro man' E Sreedharan lost by just 3,859 votes in 2021, party state general secretary and prominent leader of Palakkad, C Krishnakumar, lost by 18,840 seats to Congress youngster Rahul Mamkoothathil.
Krishnakumar was made the candidate ignoring the strong demand to field Sobha Surendran. BJP's vote share in Palakkad had witnessed a steep increase from 19.86 per cent to 29.08 per cent in 2016 when Sobha contested. The saffron party had also come to second place by pushing CPM to the third place. Since then Palakkad has been considered as one of the most hopeful seat of BJP in Kerala. Moreover, the BJP has the majority in the Palakkad municipality.
A section of district leaders of the party had openly expressed their resentment over ignoring Sobha and fielding Krishnakumar, who is often accused of trying to have a monopoly in the district. Even the party's prominent leader from Palakkad, Sandeep Varrier, had quitand joined the Congress after criticising Krishnakumar and Surendran.
While a nearly six per cent increase in vote share in CPM's stronghold Chelakkara is a relief for BJP, the party's vote share at Wayanad Lok Sabha seat went down marginally.