Amidst growing internal dissension in the State unit of the BJP, its president Amit Shah is visiting the State on Friday for reviewing the party’s poll preparedness and creating a semblance of unity in the unit.
Though Mr. Shah’s primary task is addressing the office-bearers and leaders holding charge of Palakkad and its precincts, the schism that is annoying the national leadership may also come up in the course of the discussions, sources said.
Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram are two segments where the party leadership hopes to register an impressive performance in the wake of the Sangh Parivar’s Sabarimala agitation, but the strife plaguing the party, sources said, is likely to play spoilsport.
No impact
Repeated warnings of the national leadership against recalcitrant leaders do not seem to have cast any impact.
A section of the leaders have again put the State leadership in the dock for failing to evolve a consensus on crucial issues, including the Sabarimala agitation that was deemed as pivot to improve its tally.
The confession of State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai that the party could not make any palpable gains from the agitation and a string of hartals called in quick succession have all come in for criticism within party circles.
The snap strikes called by the party became a scourge for the ruling Left Democratic Front to target the party.
Tall challenge
The organisational machinery in most of the districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, is reported to be in disarray and putting the house in order before the elections would be a tall challenge for the leadership.
The decision to ally with the Congress for upstaging the CPI(M) at the Malayinkeezh grama panchayat here has also come as an embarrassment for the party.
Divided front
The State leadership’s failure in taking forward the National Democratic Alliance as a cohesive whole is also being pointed out as a lapse on the part of the State leadership.
The Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithy faction led by A.N. Rajan Babu and Janadhipathya Rashtriya Sabha led by C.K. Janu had quit the alliance for failing to honour the commitments given to them and the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena too had expressed its displeasure time and again.
Vesting the control of the campaigning and candidate selection with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh alone would not be a panacea and the national leadership would have to address such issues too, the sources said.
