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BJP wants to pitch Mizoram governor against Shashi Tharoor in 2019 Lok Sabha polls
Though speculation was doing rounds for some time, this is the first time the state unit has approached the party leadership regarding Kummanam Rajasekharan. The RSS is also keen on his return.
The BJP’s Kerala unit has asked the party leadership to recall Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan and make him a candidate in the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency against two-time sitting Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor.
“We have informed the party leadership about our decision. Besides the district unit, about 80% of the state leaders want him to contest. He is the ideal candidate to take on the might of Tharoor,” a senior leader said on the condition of anonymity.
The leader quoted above said Rajasekharan is willing to come back if the party leadership gives him the nod.
Though speculation was doing rounds for some time, this is the first time the state unit has approached the party leadership regarding Rajasekharan. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is also keen on his return.
When BJP president Amit Shah visited Palakkad two weeks ago, an RSS delegation led by state organising secretary PN Harikrishna Kumar raised this issue with him, party sources said adding there were many such precedents.
They cited the example of former Kerala governor Nikhil Kumar, who quit office in 2014 to contest from Aurangabad in Bihar. Kumar, a former police commissioner of Delhi and director general of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, was defeated.
But the party feels that if Rajasekharan is allowed to go back to politics many other governors will also seek such an exit. At least three, including Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, have reportedly expressed their desire to go back to politics, sources said.
Rajasekharan, a former RSS pracharak, was a surprise choice to the state president post in 2015. During his three-year tenure he led the party well and managed to open an account in the state assembly for the first time but he could not rein in mounting factionalism in the party. He was unceremoniously removed and dispatched to Mizoram as its governor in 2018.
Many leaders feel that he can exploit the emotional Sabarimala issue after the September 28, 2018, verdict of the Supreme Court, which allowed women of all ages to worship at the shrine triggering statewide protests, to its hilt and give more teeth to the fight.
In the 2014 general election, party candidate O Rajagopal, a former minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, came a close second. In a tough three-cornered contest, Tharoor retained the seat with a slender margin of 15,000 votes.
The CPI has already announced its candidate in former minister C Divakaran.
