Bharat Dharma Jana Sena patron Vellappally Natesan on Thursday said the Kerala-based party should snap its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance , The Indian Express reported. Natesan claimed that the BJP in Kerala has been reduced to a private firm marred by groupism and bribery charges.
“There are Shahs in Kerala who are bigger than [BJP’s national president] Amit Shah,” he said. “The BJP state leadership has betrayed the BDJS. The BJP hasn’t given us anything.”
The BDJS is the political arm of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, a Hindu organisation headed by Natesan. “It is better if the BDJS keeps away from the NDA,” Natesan said ahead of his group’s meeting in Alappuzha on Thursday. “If they are looking for role in a government, they should join hands with the CPI(M)-led LDF. Most of the BDJS workers have a Left bent. The CPI(M) should create a situation for discussion with the BDJS.” Natesan said he was ready to start talks with the CPI(M).
However, Natesan’s son Thushar Vellappally, who is the BDJS president, rejected his father’s views. “Vellappally Natesan is not the BDJS spokesman,” Thushar said. “He was not assigned to speak for the BDJS, which has not decided to quit the NDA.”
Unidentified BJP sources told The Indian Express that the Natesan family wanted posts in the Union Cabinet. “Although Thushar had rejected his father’s stand, restlessness has been prevailing in that party over the BJP’s failure to accommodate its demands,” a BJP leader claimed.
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