Kerala’s PC George merges his party with BJP ahead of LS polls
George, 72, has represented Poonjar assembly constituency in Kottayam district seven times from 1982 to 1987 and then continuously from 1996 to 2021
Former seven-time MLA PC George merged his party, Kerala Janapaksham (Secular), with the Bharatiya Janata Party and formally became a member of the BJP in New Delhi on Wednesday.
George, his son Shone George and colleague George Joseph Kakkanad were inducted into the BJP in the presence of union ministers V Muralidharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, party’s national secretary Anil K Antony and Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar.
George, 72, has represented Poonjar assembly constituency in Kottayam district seven times from 1982 to 1987 and then continuously from 1996 to 2021. He served as the chief whip of the Congress-led UDF government from 2011 to 2015 as a member of the Kerala Congress (M). Out of the six terms he served as MLA, George was elected from different factions of the Kerala Congress. But in 2016 assembly elections, he stood as an Independent and was able to defeat both the LDF and UDF candidates by a margin of 27,000 votes. In the 2021 assembly elections, he lost to LDF candidate Sebastian Kulathunkal by 16,000 votes.
Though a political heavyweight in his bastion of Poonjar, George has frequently sparked controversies with his foot-in-the-mouth comments and alleged distasteful remarks about women and sexual assault survivors.
After his induction into the BJP, George said, “The people have accepted that Narendra Modi is the most popular leader in the country. Everyone understands that it is unfair to ignore Modi and his policies in Kerala. There are attempts to attack the Governor even by the goons who are led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. It is not right for a democracy. PM Modi will have to intervene to solve the agrarian crisis in Kerala.”