Will not allow SNDP to be saffronised or coloured in red: Vellappally Natesan

Thiruvananthapuram: After the CPI(M) in Kerala alleged that the BJP was trying to saffronise the SNDP, Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the organisation representing the numerically strong Ezhava community, said he will not allow it to be saffronised or coloured red.

The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam's general secretary also hit back at the Left party by accusing it of forgetting the common man which was the reason for its huge defeat in the Lok Sabha polls this year.

Natesan also accused the CPI(M) of doing everything it could to appease the Muslim community and giving "triple promotions" and more to those in the Left party who were from minority communities.

Such actions of the party had created a feeling of disappointment among its workers who gave their blood and sweat to it, he contended.

He was responding to CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan's recent remarks that the BJP used the SNDP, an influential organisation of the numerically strong Ezhava community, as a political tool and attempted to saffronise it.

"The BJP's policy is to divide along caste lines. The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), a movement founded by renaissance leader Sree Narayana Guru, is now being communalised by the BJP using the BDJS as a tool," Govindan had alleged.

The Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), founded by SNDP general secretary Vellappally Natesan and headed by his son Thushar Vellappally, is an ally of the BJP-led NDA in Kerala.

Govindan had expressed hope that the SNDP will prevent the saffronisation of Sree Narayana Guru's movement.

His statement came after the CPI(M) reviewed the performance of the party-led LDF in the Lok Sabha polls, which saw it gaining only one seat out of 20, and the BJP eating into its vote share in constituencies like Alappuzha and Attingal, where people belonging to the Ezhava community used to be its backbone.