Party leaders in the State are having a hard time defending the indefensible. The strain on the faces of leaders participating in TV channel debates is visible.

Conversely, the sense of jubilation in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front (LDF) is palpable. The Supreme Court verdict is a much-needed blow to the hubris and arrogance of the BJP leaders, they point out.

It may be mentioned that the ‘favourable’ Ayodhya and Sabarimala verdicts had come as a huge relief for the saffron camp.

The BJP was, understandably, upset over its dismal failure to win a single seat in the by-elections to five Assembly seats held recently. The twin verdicts from the apex court had helped the party to snap out of the blue mood it had slipped into.

But the euphoria has vanished into thin air with the Maharashtra fiasco. The SC verdict has dealt a crippling blow to the party’s hopes of making a new beginning in a State which has successfully resisted its efforts to polarise the people on religious lines.

The BJP leaders must realise that the lotus transplants badly in Kerala. Unless it reinvents itself, the B JP cannot hope to emerge as a viable and credible third force in the State.

That the BJP has its task cut out is clear from its failure to even appoint a new president for the Kerala unit. The reason is simple: the ‘party with a difference’ is bristling with differences.

So much so, it is unable to elect a new chief.

It is more than a month since the former Kerala BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai was ‘banished’ to Mizoram as Governor. His crime: the party could not win, under his leadership, any seat in the five assembly by-elections.

Pillai’s exit has literally triggered a no-holds-barred tussle for the top party post in the State. There are three contenders for the president’s post. Kummanam Rajashekharan, a former BJP state chief and a blue-eyed-boy of the State RSS; K. Surendran, a general secretary of the Kerala BJP who has the backing of the national leadership of the BJP; and MT Ramesh, who is supported by the faction owing allegiance to former Kerala BJP president, P K Krishnadas.

The stalemate over the issue has remained unbroken so far. Whoever gets elected, one thing is clear. The new chief will find it a tough job to recover the ground the BJP has lost in the secular state. The Maharashtra setback will render the new president’s job more difficult. That explains the deepening sense of despair gripping the Kerala BJP. (IPA Service)