Ahead of crucial Palakkad bypoll, Kerala BJP’s G Sandeep Varier joins Congress

Sandeep was welcomed to the Congress in Palakkad at the district committee office in the presence of party state president K Sudhakaran and Opposition leader V D Satheesan.

Addressing the media, Sandeep said he had “abandoned” the Sangh Parivar ideology.

“I’m a Congress worker. I’m happy that I have left the market of hate and have joined the politics of love. I’m fed up with the CPI(M)-BJP deal in politics,’’ he said.

“I’ve felt suffocated in the BJP. Party state president K Surendran is responsible for my decision to quit BJP.  My mistake was that I opposed the BJP deal with CPI(M) in Kerala.  My drawback was that I was not in the call list of Dharmarajan (a leader accused of being involved in transporting BJP’s election fund which was looted ahead of the assembly elections of 2021),” he said.

Reacting to Sandeep quitting the party, BJP state president K Surendran said “this will not impact the party in Kerala”.

“Congress will get defeated in this by-election. This is part of a scripted drama,” he said.

The by-election in Palakkad assembly seat will be held on November 20. It is crucial for BJP as this is one of the seats where the party had finished runner up in the 2016 and 2021 elections.

Sandeep, who had contested the last assembly elections from Shornur in Palakkad district, had been keeping away from the party’s bye-election campaign this time around.  After heading the BJP’s campaign during the Lok Sabha elections in Wayanad — when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had contested from the seat — the leader was seemingly upset over the party’s denying him a ticket from Palakkad earlier this month.

After he openly stated that he would not campaign for the BJP candidate in Palakkad, senior RSS leaders had held discussions with Sandeep, but he didn’t relent. Meanwhile, several CPI(M) leaders had welcomed Sandeep to their party if he abandoned the Sangh Parivar politics. CPI(M), which has fielded a former Congress leader Dr P Sarin as Left backed independent candidate, was ready to absorb the disgruntled BJP leader into the party.

The intra-party feud has come out at a time when the BJP is approaching the by-poll with improved prospects of winning the seat after the historic win of Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in the general election.

In Palakkad, the Congress has fielded Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkoottathil as party candidate. Apart from Sarin, a few local Congress leaders had also left the party after Rahul was made the candidate.