THRISSUR: P.K. Krishnadas and Ettumanur Radhakrishnan are in the fray for the post of the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president when the time for the withdrawal of nominations was over at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The election will be held here on Sunday.

Mr. Krishnadas is known to be the nominee of the faction led by P. P. Mukundan and Mr. Radhakrishnan is considered a staunch ally of the outgoing State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai. A.N. Radhakrishnan who had filed his nomination withdrew from the fray after the nomination of Mr. Krishnadas was declared valid by the returning officer Pon Radhakrishnan.

Move for consensus

According to party sources, 38 candidates are in the fray for 20 members of the party's national council from the State. They include C. K. Padmanabhan, O. Rajagopal and K. Raman Pillai.

Hectic efforts are on to evolve a consensus on the new president — but there are many on both sides who preferred an open showdown.

The anti-Mukundan faction tried to get the nomination of Mr. Krishnadas declared invalid on grounds that the party constitution does not allow the organisational secretary to contest for the post of State president. But the returning officer rejected the contention by pointing out that Mr. Krishnadas has already been elected to the State council, and the objections should have been raised then. There were reports that the anti-Mukundan faction may go to the court against the decision. But the move was dropped after it was known that the move will invite disciplinary action from the national leadership.

Anti-Mukundan faction leaders said that they had faxed complaints to BJP president Rajnath Singh and chief electoral officer O.P. Kohli against the decision. Consensus efforts are still being made by the leaders K.V. Sreedharan and Uma Kant.

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