Kerala - Kollam   

BJP a divided house in Kollam district

Staff Reporter

All mandalam units have two committees

PROTEST: BJP members, headed by Pattathanam Radhakrishnan, holding a demonstration in Kollam on Tuesday.

KOLLAM: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands polarised into two warring groups in Kollam district.

There are two committees for all mandalam units of the party. These units were constituted through rival elections.

The district committee is also facing the same threat. When it became clear that the party would have two district presidents in Kollam, the election processes which began on Tuesday morning in two different locations in the district were abruptly called off. One group even held a march through the city in protest against the rival camp. Groupism became active in the district unit a couple of months ago. The declaration of party elections aggravated the groupism. While one group comprises party workers owing allegiance to the official group, headed by party State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, the others allegedly belong to the "Mukundan group."

The present district committee president, K. Sivadasan, and his supporters allegedly belong to the rival camp. They met at Paripally on Tuesday morning to conduct the election of district office-bearers. The other group led by the former district president of the party, Pattathanam Radhakrishnan, met in the Jawahar Bal Bhavan auditorium here to elect its own district committee. However, since the former side declared postponing of the elections, the latter also did not elect anyone. But they organised a strong demonstration against the rival camp.

State returning officer for the elections P.D. Purushothaman and district returning officer Ettumanoor Radhakrishnan had earlier issued notices to the Kollam district committee to conduct the mandalam and district committee elections in the district only after the election of the State president of the party. This was in the wake of several serious complaints against a section of the current district committee office-bearers, including the district president.

But the district president and his supporters from the rival camp conducted the mandalam elections. This prompted the official group to conduct its own elections and elect another set of mandalam committee office-bearers. Both the elections have not been endorsed by the State committee. It is in this backdrop that the rival camp announced conducting the district committee elections. The official group also declared its own election process.

The rival camp had fixed the name of the current district general secretary of the party, Kizhakanela Sudhakaran, as the new president. The other camp had two names in mind for the post. They are Mr. Pattathanam Radhakrishnan and Ayur Murali.

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