BJP hopes to rule Palakkad municipality this time

The Kerala BJP has been trying hard – but in vain – all these years to ‘open account’ in the Assembly but this time they are hoping to come to power in a major municipality in the State.

BJP leaders are confident that the party would rule a municipality in the State after the October 25 civic polls if things continue to develop in their present pace. The party had lost this opportunity – between the cup and lip – after the 2005 civic polls, thanks to the strategies of the “secularists” to keep the BJP away from power.

Enhancing the party’s hopes of coming to power in the Palakkad Municipality, V Devayani, chairperson of the outgoing council, resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP on Friday. She would now contest the municipal election as a BJP candidate, she announced. BJP leaders confirmed this.

Devayani, who had become the chairperson of the municipality as per a High Court directive on August 31, 2006 in the context of a stalemate in the council, left the Congress in protest against the bias shown to her. The Congress had promised to field her in a division reserved for Scheduled Caste women, but in the end she was given a general seat.

After formally resigning from the Congress, Devayani reached the Palakkad district BJP office and addressed the Press with leaders. She said she would contest the municipal election as a BJP candidate. The Congress later expelled Devayani from the primary membership of the party.

“I come from an ordinary family. I had started several programmes for the people as chairperson and I have to take them forward. For this I have to win the election and become a councilor, but the Congress put me in a difficult seat. Now the BJP has promised to support me for achieving this,” she said.

Devayani had become chairperson on the court directive after CPI(M)’s AK Chandrankutty, elected twice as chairman, refused to take charge as he was elected with BJP support. In that context, a BJP councilor petitioned the High Court which gave the chance to Devayani, who was defeated by Chandrankutty.

The BJP had won the vice-chairperson’s post on its own. In the outgoing 50-member council, the BJP has 17 members but neither the Left with 15 seats nor the Congress having 14 members was ready to let it head the municipality. Both the sides were also adamant that they would not come to power with BJP support.

The BJP hopes that more and more Congress leaders and sympathizers would join it in the coming days, making its chances of coming to power brighter. Two influential woman leaders have already quit the Congress and are contesting as Independents with BJP support. One of them is Sindhu S Radhakrishnan, district secretary of the Mahila Congress.

“Our studies show that we have a good chance of winning close to 25 seats in the coming elections, while the number of divisions has gone up to 52,” said a district BJP leader. “If we can reach that figure, there will be pressure on others to support us. If they still hold on to their pseudo-secular ideas, it is up to them. But I don’t think they will do it anymore,” he said.

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