We sold pumps for Rs 18 cr in Kerala: BJP panel

K Raman Pillai, former state BJP president, explains how the party made money from the pumps and where it went, in his testimony in the probe report: 8220;About Rs 18 crore had been collected8230; but accounts of only two crores have been furnished. The balance amount they are keeping and using to help followers for acting against the party. These collections were carried out by P P Mukundan RSS nominee and BJP organising secretary for Kerala and Tamil Nadu and Prof Narayanan Nair BJP state treasurer8230;.8217;8217;

Pillai goes on to explain that party workers were actually offered a discount on the bribe: 8220;In the Quilon district committee meeting, Prof Nair demanded Rs 20 lakh from party workers and Rs 25 lakh from others for getting sanction for petrol pumps. This can be seen in the minutes of the meeting8230;.8217;8217;

The state BJP8217;s official spokesperson, BK Shekhar, backs that in his own testimony : 8220;Money collected from the petrol pump scam has been lavishly spent among workers for carrying out anti-party activities8230;.8217;8217;

A top state BJP leader told The Indian Express that the Kerala unit had been 8220;allowed8217;8217; by the national leadership to 8220;accept donations8217;8217; in return for allocating petrol pumps. 8220;But we made the mistake of allowing a party caucus to handle that and keep the money themselves, since we did not want to put it in the party8217;s bank accounts. They didn8217;t hand it over and the party obviously can8217;t have any legal recourse8217;8217;.

The high-level committee which probed the Lok Sabha poll debacle and allegations of vote transfer in Kerala comprised two state vice-presidents, Mohan Shanker and Manjeri Narayanan, and former state DGP and BJP state human rights cell chief, RPC Nair. The report, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, was being kept under wraps for the last four months 8212; even the state committee members have not been given copies.

The probe was ordered after the party8217;s Lok Sabha bypoll defeat in Thiruvananthapuram nine months ago8212;its former state president CK Padmanabhan polled just 37,000 votes while he was expected to get about a lakh.

The report also reveals how BJP votes are traded to both the political fronts in Kerala 8212; the Congress-led UDF and the CPM-led LDF. Senior BJP leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal is quoted saying in the report that the state BJP is now 8220;8230;demoralised, growth is at a standstill8230; no new members will join the party.8217;8217;

But more worrying for the BJP may be the way the probe report says a powerful coterie led by Mukundan, who had made a lateral entry into the BJP as the state organising secretary nominated by the RSS in the late 1980s, has been functioning. According to the report, Mukundan and his men worked overtime to ensure that the BJP candidate lost by transferring votes en-bloc to both the Left and Congress candidates, witholding campaign funds, destroying posters and campaign material and even getting a state vice- president, V N Unni, assaulted besides ransacking the BJP office itself.

Spokesperson Shekhar has reminded the probe committee that top leaders of the both the Left and Congress-led fronts have stated that Mukundan had actually sold them BJP votes. Though Mukundan was stripped of his RSS Pracharak role as well as his Kerala charge and was ordered to keep himself only to Tamil Nadu and Andaman 038; Nicobar a few months ago, he still holds considerable sway in the Kerala unit.

8220;We would like to make it unambiguously clear that the credibility of the party in Kerala is at stake. Unless an impact is created by corrective action, there will be a massive erosion of the ranks and the party will lose its base in Kerala,8217;8217; the report concludes.