THRISSUR: The election of the new leadership of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be held in Thrissur on November 4 and 5.

According to State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, nominations for the election of the new president will be accepted on November 4 and the polling, if necessary, will be held the next day. The result will be declared the same day.

He told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the State council members would elect 20 leaders to the national council of the party. Returning officer Pon Radhakrishnan and L. Ganesh, secretary in charge of party affairs in Kerala, are likely to attend the meeting.

Mr. Sreedharan Pillai said that district-level elections could not be held in Kozhikode and Kollam as those districts did not qualify for the State elections. According to the party constitution, elections can be held only in districts where there is a 2 per cent growth in membership at the mandalam level. These two districts did not meet the requirement. The election of the Thiruvananthapuram district committee is under dispute as it has been challenged by a faction. Following this, the central returning officer has directed postponement of the election. However, the rival faction is arguing that the directive has no relevance since it came after the announcement of the election results.

A total of 102 State council members from 11 districts are qualified to take part in the State election, and the number will go up to 123 if the Central election authorities declare the Thiruvananthapuram district election valid.

Replying to questions, Mr. Sreedharan Pillai said the names of P.K. Krishnadas and Ettumanur Radhakrishnan were being mentioned as likely candidates for the State president. ``But I think there will not be a contest and the new State president will be elected through consensus. In all the districts other than Malappuram the elections of district presidents have been held on the basis on consensus. So the same process will take place at the State level also, and intense efforts are on in that direction,'' he said.

However, the faction opposed to Mr. Sreedharan Pillai say that Mr. Krishnadas, known to be the nominee of the party leader P.P. Mukundan, is likely to have a comfortable win if elections are held. They claim that a huge majority of the newly elected State council members and most of the district committees are with the Mukundan faction.

The former State president C.K. Padmanabhan whose name was mentioned as a potential candidate has opted out of contest, it is reliably learnt.

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