Thiruvananthapuram: BJP has appointed new presidents for 10 districts of Kerala after overcoming factional feuds that delayed the reorganisation process.
The appointments were announced by the state committee on Sunday. New chiefs have not been announced for Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kannur and Kasargod districts owing to lack of consensus.
The new district chiefs are: V V Rajesh (Thiruvananthapuram), B B Gopakumar (Kollam), M V Gopakumar (Alappuzha), Asokan Kulanada (Pathanamthitta), K S Aji (Idukki), K K Anish Kumar (Thrissur), Ravi Thelath (Malappuram), V K Sajeevan (Kozhikode), E Krishnadas (Palakkad) and Saji Shankar ( Wayanad).
The party leadership had to put up with intense lobbying by the factions of P K Krishnadas and V Muraleedharan over the selections.
Muraleedharan could ensure that his nominee V V Rajesh was selected as the party chief for Thiruvananthapuram in place of S Suresh from the Krishnadas camp.
Muraleedharan's nominees also include E Krishnadas of Palakkad, Ravi Thelath of Malappuram and Saji Shankar of Wayanad.
K Anish Kumar of Thrissur has the backing of the Krishnadas group. M V Gopakumar of Alappuzha and Asokan Kulanada of Pathanamthitta too belong to this camp.
V K Sajeevan of Kozhikode, who was with Krishnadas faction, had shifted loyalty to the M T Ramesh faction. K S Aji of Idukki and B B Gopakumar of Kollam reportedly took a neutral position in the factional feud within the party.
Stalemate in four districts
The appointment of Ernakulam district chief has been delayed after the party decided not to conduct voting for the post as demanded by a section in the district committee.
In Kannur, the party is facing intense lobbying for choosing a district president from the Ezhava community.
The delay in Kasaragod is reportedly over the demand of the RSS unit of Karnataka to make Ravisha Thantri as the president.
In Kottayam, the Krishnadas faction wants the incumbent president N Hari to continue. However, the Muraleedharan group has demanded that a person from the backward community be elected as the chief. This move was seen by many to be part of strategy to ensure that Hari was not re-elected president.