The fortune of Kerala BJP has reached the nadir and the outfit finds itself in a quagmire of corruption, black money, nepotism and hawala operations. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers were having a subdued second anniversary function to mark the victory of the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and swearing in of the government, Kerala saw group clash by the party’s State level leaders and cadres over sharing of Rs three crore, a part of the illegal money meant for funding the recently held assembly election.
Vadanappalli in Thrissur district watched with shock on Saturday as two groups of the Hindutwa outfit clashed among themselves with deadly weapons resulting in Kiran (27) getting grievously injured. He has been admitted to hospital.
Kerala Police is investigating the source of Rs three crore which was waylaid and robbed by a group of persons that included many district level leaders of the BJP in Thrissur. The money was reportedly meant for the election expenses of a party candidate in the district.
A part of the money was seized by the Police from the houses of BJP’s Thrissur district leaders. M Ganesh, Kerala organizational secretary of the party and G Gireesh, office secretary of the party were summoned by the investigating officer and questioned for almost five hours. They were let off with a notice that they would be summoned again for questioning.
“We do not have anything to do with this heist and black money. Our dealings were through electronic money transfer and all transactions have been accounted for,” said K Surendran, party’s Kerala chief.
An audio clip of the party’s top woman leader in the State asking a businessman to part with Rs 25 lakh so that she could get a national level posting has gone viral in the social media. The leader has dragged the name of a prominent union cabinet minister to convince the businessman about her influence in New Delhi.
The vernacular media, including satellite news channels and newspapers, have been charging that Rs 400 crore has been pumped into the State to fight the assembly elections following the assurance by Kerala BJP leaders that the party is sure to win 35 seats in the election.
“If the BJP wants to survive in Kerala as a political entity, the central leadership should oust the present State leaders and bring in new persons with capabilities to lead the cadre. There are personalities like Dr Jacob Thomas, T P Senkumar, former directors general of police, actors Suresh Gopi and Krishnakumar who have proven track records in public service,” said Shajan Skariah, political commentator and chief editor of political portal Marunadan Malayali.
