BJP to accommodate `left out’ leaders

Several prominent leaders had failed to get elected to the district committees in the recent organisational elections.

Senior party leader and Union Minister O Rajagopal was forced to withdraw his nomination to the party’s national council as the contestants refused to withdraw their nominations for accommodating him at the Chengannoor conference. After opting out of the race, Rajagopal had maintained that he withdrew from the contest so as to make the election unanimous.

The party has assigned three of its senior leaders to iron out the organisational issues in the faction-torn Kollam and Thiruvananathapuram districts. As party State president C K Padmanabhan and secretary Eattumanoor Radhakrishan will attend to the organisational issues of Palakad district, party vice-president Madikai Kumaran will attend to Kollam district.

The party State committee members will also tour the State for sorting out the organisational issues in other parts of the State which have surfaced following the elections, sources said.

Rating the unprecedented contests, which even went to the extent of booth-capturing and tension in some districts in the organisational polls, as `unhealthy,’ it was decided that party organisational secretary P P Mukundan and C K Padmanabhan would attend as many as district committee meetings as possible for carrying together all sections of the party workers.

The conference has also decided to take up the issue of ration subsidy of the State with Union Minister Santhakumar who is holding the portfolio. The party State unit and Union Minster O Rajagopal were at loggerheads regarding continuance of ration subsidy as the latter felt that the subsidy need be limited.

The meeting also urged party national secretary Basavaraj Patil, who attended the meeting, to convey the concern of the party in this regard to the Union Minister and to expedite steps for making the benefits available to all possible sections before the civic body elections.

The conference elected O G Thankappan, V Raman Kutty and P Raghavan as joint organisational secretaries and also appointed six mekhala committees with a president and five member committees for each of them.

Each mekhala committee will have a few district committees under them. The following are the new mekhala presidents: Sivadas (Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta), A N Radhakrishnan (Ernakulam and Alappuzha), Narayanan Namboodiri (Kottayam and Idukki), Raghunandanan (Thrissur and Palakkad), K P Sreesan (Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad) and P P Karunakaran Master (Kannur and Kasaragod). The mekhala committees will coordinate the organisational activities in the districts coming under their control.

The conveners of various party cells were also appointed at the meeting.

The party will also organise Jana Sambarka Parvam, a mass contact programme, district-level workers’ meet and a fund-raising programmes in the coming months so as to gear up for the ensuing civic body elections.