The Vigilance And Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has ordered a probe against some BJP leaders in connection with securing clearance for a private medical college.

The order has been issued on the basis of a complaint filed by Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Councillor A S Sukarno, who happens to be the Kovalam Area Committee member of the CPI(M).

The State BJP leadership, which sought to play down the significance of the disclosures, was forced to expel its Cooperative Cell Convener R S Vinod from the primary membership of the party following a directive from the central leadership, which has taken a serious view of the scam.

The scam has caused acute embarrassment for the party’s central leadership, which has always claimed that the BJP is a party with a difference, untainted by charges of corruption. That image has been blown sky-high by the developments in Kerala.

Vinod and a few other party accomplices have been accused of taking a Rs 5.6 crore bribe for securing Medical Council of India’s (MCI) recognition for the said medical college, being run by a businessman close to Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) general secretary Vellappally Natesan.

The scam rocked the Lok Sabha as well, with the CPI(M) and Congress MPs raising the issue. Lok Sabha had to be adjourned after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to allow CPI(M) MP M B Rajesh and Congress MP K C Venugopal to speak on the matter.

The scam came to light after a commission set up by the Kerala BJP probed the matter and submitted a report to the state leadership.

The issue has also exposed the internecine infighting in the party, with one section alleging that the followers of a prominent state office-bearer had taken the bribe. The idea, it is being alleged, was to prevent state leader M T Ramesh, close to BJP state chief Kummanam Rajashekharan, from becoming the next state party president.

Needless to say, the scam has left the central leaders red-faced. And the possibility of a thorough overhaul of the Kerala BJP unit cannot be ruled out in the light of the unsavoury episode.

It will also seriously set back the party’s efforts to cobble together a third front in the state, independent of the CPI(M)-led Left democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-headed United Democratic Front (UDF).

Already, the state BJP is in deep trouble with the party failing to increase its vote share in the keenly-contested Malappuram by-election. The party managed to poll, to the chagrin of the central leaders, only a thousand votes more than its earlier tally as against its much-hyped hopes of at least doubling the vote share.

Then came the open criticism from SNDP boss Vellappally Natesan, who made no secret of his unhappiness over the failure of the central BJP leaders to keep the promises made to the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), an ally of the BJP in the Kerala NDA alliance and the political wing of the SNDP.

The scam would also induce other parties keen to join the BJP-led NDA in Kerala to have a rethink. In particular, the BJP’s efforts to cosy up to the Kerala Congress (M) have also suffered a serious jolt. The party is aware of the need to have the KC(M) on its side if it has to make a better show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

No wonder, the Kerala BJP leaders are in a blue mood. The swagger is gone; also missing is the spring in their walk. The dream of repeating in Kerala the successful UP experiment has been blown to smithereens by the eruption of the scam. The lotus is set to wilt in the heat generated by the medical college scam. (IPA Service)