Thiruvananthapuram: In a sudden move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national leadership in New Delhi, the party’s state president in Kerala, Kummanam Rajasekharan was given the post of the Mizoram governor, taking political circles in Kerala, including the local BJP leadership by surprise.
The announcement came on Friday, on the eve of the conclusion of campaigning for a by-election in the Chengannur assembly constituency, where the BJP has modest hopes of winning against traditional rivals, the ruling Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front.
Interestingly, political observers are divided as to whether the posting of Rajaskeharan as governor, which is widely seen as a decorative position, is an appreciation for his work for the party or a kick upstairs for his failure to resolve internal bickering within the party.
Whatever the reason, the change of role for Rajaskeharan has created a vacancy for the state president for the BJP, for which senior leaders K. Surendran, M.T. Ramesh and Shobha Surendran are considered the front runners.
Rajaskeharan being made a governor comes as the latest in a series of top appointments for BJP leaders from Kerala, including the nomination of Malayalam film star Suresh Gopi to the Rajya Sabha and making former bureaucrat Alphons Kannanthanam as the junior federal minister for tourism.
The BJP has been strongly wooing voters in Kerala, a state where it has still to make any major inroads. It has only a single MLA in the 140-member state assembly, and is not strongly tipped to win the Chengannur by-election.
Some political observers feel that the shifting out of Rajasekharan as governor in Mizoram, is a strategic move by the BJP to ensure that a more aggressive team is in place for the party in Kerala ahead of the general elections in 2019.
The 65-year-old Rajasekharan who once held a government job, came into political limelight after he was involved in the Nilackal agitation in the 1980s against the establishment of a church at Nilackal in Pathanamthitta district, and more recently when he led an agitation against the proposed airport in Aranmula, also in Pathanamthitta district.
