Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 7 : While Metroman E. Sreedharan on Thursday got elevated by being inducted as a special invitee to the BJP’s national executive, three others — veteran O. Rajagopal, former Union Minister K.J. Alphons and Sobha Surendran were dropped from the new list after the reshuffle.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda released the new list which includes 80 regular members, 50 special invitees and 179 permanent invitees.
Following the reconstitution, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan and former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekheran are the only two from Kerala in the ruling party’s top most decision making body.
Also finding a place is former state party president P.K. Krishnadas as a special invitee.
With this, it has become clear that the faction led by Muraleedharan has emerged strong as for a while the factional feud in Kerala unit had reached new levels and Sobha Surendran being dropped shows that Muraleedharan is the final word in the state unit of the BJP, whose close aide K. Surendran is the state BJP president.
Sreedharan who lost the April 6 assembly polls after joining the BJP by a whisker of a margin to state Youth Congress president Shafi Parambil, despite his age, was elevated as a special invitee.
Another omission which has raised eyebrows is of Alphons, who was seen as the Christian face in the BJP in Kerala and had one term as an Union Minister in the first Narendra Modi cabinet.
Rajagopal, in 2016 created history by becoming the first BJP legislator in the 140 member Kerala Assembly, but since being 92 years, his seat was contested by Kummanam Rajasekheran, but lost to present State Education Minister V. Sivankutty.
