BJP Faces Crisis in Kerala After Suicides Highlight Internal Turmoil
BJP faces backlash over back-to-back worker suicides.
The BJP in Kerala reeled from a double crisis as the suicide of former RSS worker Anand Kumar Thampi on Saturday spiraled into a political storm, followed by a prominent woman activist from Nedumangad attempting suicide on Sunday over alleged denial of a local-body poll ticket. Despite the party's swift denial that Anand was ever a member—claiming he had joined Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena—the incidents handed the Congress and CPM potent ammunition to hammer internal discord ahead of crucial elections.
BJP state general secretary S Suresh expressed grief over Anand's death but slammed opposition parties for "cheap politics" in exploiting the tragedy, insisting Anand was never on any candidate list. On the Nedumangad case, he confirmed the woman's party affiliation and promised a thorough internal inquiry, even as the back-to-back events exposed raw frustrations among grassroots workers denied seats.
Congress leader K Muraleedharan tore into the BJP, predicting it would win fewer than 20 seats in Thiruvananthapuram due to sidelining loyalists and stifling internal grievances. General Education Minister V Sivankutty escalated the attack, alleging rising risks to BJP and RSS workers from factional strife, and cited Anand's suicide note referencing a supposed BJP-RSS-sand mafia nexus as evidence of deeper rot.
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From Palakkad, BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar fired back, accusing CPM and Congress of "vulture politics" at a Shoranur election convention, reiterating that Anand's name never appeared in local candidate panels and had shifted to Shiv Sena (UBT). He dismissed links to the BJP as opportunistic smears amid escalating poll heat.
KPCC general secretary Manacaud Suresh amplified the offensive from Thiruvananthapuram, flagging a pattern of suicides among BJP and RSS workers that he said exposed a violent organizational culture demanding urgent explanation from state leadership. As local-body polls loom, the BJP finds itself defensively scrambling to contain the fallout from these tragic incidents fueling opposition narratives of internal chaos.
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