BJP’s political manoeuvre to sweep votes in the name of religion, again!
RSS backed Kerala BJP state unit general secretary K Surendran has bagged the important ticket from Pathanamthitta district situated in Sabarimala. This constituency is based around the Sabarimala temple. He will be contesting against sitting Congress MP Anto Antony and LDF (CPIM led Left Democratic Front) candidate Veena George.
K Surendran was earlier booked on charges of conspiracy to commit culpable homicide (Section 308) and use of criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman (Section 354) of the IPC. These charges were related to a “plot to attack a 52-year-old woman” at Sabarimala on November 6. After the Supreme Court passed an order allowing entry of women of all ages, several women had tried to enter the temple premises. They faced severe backlash from protesters organised by Sanghpariwar.
K Surendran spent 20 days in jail before Kerala High Court granted him conditional bail, His bail plea got rejected twice earlier.
The conditional bail had prohibited him from entering Pathanamthitta district situated in Sabarimala, for 2 months. Apart from this, he was also asked to execute a bond of Rs. 2 lakhs, surrender his passport and ensure that he does not commit similar offences.
After coming out on bail, he had vowed to “continue to participate in protests against ‘violation of traditions’ at Sabarimala through Namajapa protests and peaceful demonstrations.
K Surendran started his political career as a cadre of the student wing of the BJP, AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiPaishad (ABVP). In November 2014, K Surendrandismissed the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest as a “mere transgender protest.” In October 2015, a photo of Surendran showing him eating beef went viral. Surendran had responded to this controversy saying, “during election period he became vegetarian.” Later he said that he had never had beef in his life. He had also denied the analysis that beef exports had risen by 15.4% in India during first year of BJP rule under PM Modi. In May 2017, Surendranshared a fake photo to stir sentiments after a calf was allegedly killed by youth Congress leaders. The photo shared by thousands, was traced to be from Bangladesh. He received a lot of flak over this attempt to manipulate sentiments by using the fake photo.
This looks like a strategic move of the BJP to sweep votes that have been polarised after the Sabarimala protests. As per reports BJP is confident of winning this seat.
Positions
K. Surendran has held the following positions:
- AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad(ABVP): Unit Secretary, Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College
- AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP): Organizing Secretary, Palakkad Nagar (1991–92)
- Bharatiya Janata YuvaMorcha (BJYM): Waynad District President in 1992, State Secretary (1995–98), State
- General Secretary from 1999–2003 and State President from 2003–2009
- BJP State General Secretary from 2009–present
- under director board member of National Yuva Cooperative Society
- Director of North Malabar District Co-Operative Marketing Society1997-2002)
- Advisory Board member, Nehru Yuva Kendra 1999–2004)