Season of discontent marks bypoll campaign phase in Kerala

Close on the heels of expelled Congress leader P. Sarin’s politically damaging rebellion and transformation as LDF’s Independent candidate in Palakkad, BJP now grapples with potentially embarrassing disaffection in the ranks

A season of discontent appears to mark the campaign phase of the byelections in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. 

Close on the heels of expelled Congress leader P. Sarin’s politically damaging rebellion and his radical transformation as the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) Independent candidate in Palakkad, it appears to be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) turn to grapple with potentially embarrassing disaffection in the ranks.

An expelled office secretary of the BJP in Thrissur, Tirur Satheesh, wrongfooted the BJP by linking the theft of an estimated ₹3.5 crore of unaccounted money from a car in Kodakara in the run-up to the 2021 election to the party leadership.

He alleged that the “black money” from Karnataka was meant for BJP’s electioneering purposes. Mr. Satheesh claimed he had safeguarded the cash bags at the BJP’s Thrissur office, allegedly in the presence of the party’s State president K. Surendran.

Days later, in a classic mafia-style ambush operation, anonymous persons stole the cash as it was being transported in the car.

The Kerala Police arrested 22 persons in connection with the heist but found scarce evidence to link the money to the BJP leadership. 

Satheesan’s charges

The former BJP worker’s disclosure prompted Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan to cite the police’s clean chit to the BJP as another telling example of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] collusion with the BJP-led Central government to save the outwardly opposing parties from discomfiting criminal investigations by State as well as federal law enforcement agencies.

He alleged that the police had ensured Mr. Surendran a discharge in the Manjeswaram election bribery case by wilfully delaying the chargesheet. 

(The prosecution case was that Mr. Surendran, the BJP’s candidate from Manjeswaram in the 2021 Assembly election and five others had bribed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate K. Sundara to withdraw the latter’s candidacy.)

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan demanded a comprehensive enquiry into the cash heist in the light of the ex-BJP worker’s disclosure.

Short-lived propaganda, says BJP

Mr. Surendran termed the controversy a short-lived byelection propaganda by the Congress and the CPI(M) to disadvantage the BJP.

Published - November 01, 2024 01:26 pm IST