RSS, BJP Leaders Differ In Appointment of Party Media Convenors

The appointment of one of the media convenors in Mr Chandrasekhar's team, a former Union minister who was named as the BJP's Kerala chief last month, has come under the scanner. The new appointee is said to be a close friend of Sidheeq Kappan, a journalist having alleged links with the PFI and out on bail in a UAPA case.

A prominent Hindutva leader Swami Bhargava Ram, close to the RSS, is leading the campaign against this new appointee's inclusion in the BJP chief's team. The saffron leader has also raised security concerns over the appointment, linking the appointee with Kappan.

Besides, several senior BJP leaders are miffed over the efforts by the new chief to bring in "his own people" rather than BJP karyakartas in his team. While the Assembly polls are scheduled in the southern state early next year, the local body polls are scheduled by the end of this year. The BJP is already struggling despite its central leadership trying hard to compete with the Left and the Congress since 2014. To make matters all the more challenging, the RSS, it is learnt, wants the team of the new BJP chief in the state to give opportunities to “new faces” from within the organisation.

Sources disclosed several senior leaders have registered their apprehension over the inclusion of “non-karyakartas” within the organisational unit. The BJP central leadership, it is learnt, has received complaints that several “outsiders” are being included in the social media team.

Some leaders, sources said, have also complained that a “parallel system” is getting propped up in the state unit. Also, there are reports that some of the BJP workers had an altercation with some of the “outsiders” recently in the BJP office, about which the party central leadership was apprised.