By Our Special Correspondent
At a core committee meeting he attended in Kochi earlier this month, Prime Minister Modi asked the Kerala unit to reshuffle the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) core committee and bring in new faces, and the prime minister expressed displeasure over the poor election performance party in the state.
According to a senior leader present at the meeting, Modi asked state leaders to induct prominent leaders from other parties into the BJP, a strategy tried and tested by the BJP in states like Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Last week, the BJP central leadership appointed former Union minister Prakash Javadekar as the state in-charge as part of its organizational restructuring ahead of the 2024 elections. Javadekar has been appointed in place of CP Radhakrishnan, a member of the BJP's national executive, who took charge in 2020.
According to sources, though the Prime Minister had raised the issue of organizational restructuring earlier too, this time, he wanted to implement the changes quickly. "The Prime Minister said that the party has not seen any development in the state despite favorable conditions," said the leader.
Modi is reported to have said that he has been seeing the same faces in the core committee for the past few years and adding new members is a must to change the fortunes of the party in the state.
The 10-member core committee includes senior members like O Rajagopal, Union Minister V Muralidharan, State President K Surendran, Kummanam Rajasekaran and PK Krishnadas.
However, some senior BJP leaders who attended the meeting with the Prime Minister said that despite the PM's insistence on including leaders from other parties, it was easier said than done. "No senior leader from Congress or CPM will join BJP as they know it will end his/her political future," said a leader.
BJP state president K. Surendran said that the details of the meeting cannot be disclosed. But he admitted that the prime minister had discussed the party's expansion plan. He concluded that there is no plan to reorganize the core committee.
Core committee member MT Ramesh said he could not attend the core committee meeting as he was suffering from covid. Another factor hurting the party's chances in the state is the nexus between the state BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS. "Now that Javadekar is presiding over state affairs, we expect to see some positive changes," said an RSS leader.
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