Hardliners in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) State unit seemed to have gained an upper hand in the organisational set-up.
The two-day annual State conference of RSS held in Palakkad early this week saw Prantha Karyavahak P. Gopalankutty and Prantha Pracharak P.R. Sasidharan retaining their posts. M. Radhakrishnan, managing director of the BJP mouthpiece, Janmabhoomi, was elevated to the post of Saha Karyavah. There will be three Saha Karyavahs, the other two being N. Shankar Ram and P.N. Easwaran.
A major political change is the nomination of K. Subash, Vibhag Pracharak of Palakkad zone as assistant organisational secretary of the BJP. The current organisational secretary, K.R. Umakanth, will continue in the post for some more time and be shifted to the post of managing director ofJanmabhoomi.
It was alleged that Mr. Umakanth had colluded with a faction led by BJP State president V. Muraleedharan regarding the latter’s re-nomination in February last year and wrongly informed RSS leader Suresh Soni that the RSS State leadership favoured Mr. Muraleedharan. The sour relationship between the RSS and BJP got reflected in the Lok Sabha elections in the State.
It was pointed out that the Thiruvananthapuram seat, where senior leader O. Rajagopal contested, was one of the 57 constituencies in the country where the BJP nominees lost by less than 15,000 votes.
The RSS Central leadership deputed its general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi and joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale to the State in April to inquire into the fissures in the RSS-BJP leadership. The recent structural changes also revealed that the umbilical code between the RSS and BJP would remain stronger and that the RSS would be calling the shots in the party in future.