Vellapally Natesan hails CM Pinarayi Vijayan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Within hours of sharply criticizing the BJP leadership for its failure to fulfill the promises made to his party BDJS which is an important NDA ally, SNDP general secretary Vellapally Natesan hailed Pinarayi Vijayan as the most powerful chief minister Kerala has ever seen. “Kerala now has a real chief minister," he said after calling on Pinarayi Vijayan at Cliff House here on Friday evening. The meeting gained significance as it came on a day BJP began its national council meeting in Kozhikode.

Vellapally who is one of the most powerful leaders of the BJP-led NDA in Kerala, spent more than 10 minutes with the chief minister who is also a CPM politburo member. The SNDP leader, however, said there were no political discussions during the course of his meeting with the chief minister. “We brought to his notice some of the problems being faced by the educational institutions being run by the SN Trust," he said. “Nothing will happen to me in micro-finance corruption case," the SNDP leader said while referring to the criticism that he was cozying up to the LDF Government because of the case.

Earlier in the day, Vellapally launched a scathing attack on the BJP leadership. He said there was widespread resentment among BDJS workers against BJP's failure to fulfill the promises made before and after polls. “Even the discussions held with BJP national president Amit Shah failed to yield any results perhaps because of the groupism in the state unit of the party. The BJP national leadership had also promised positions for our people but failed to keep the promise,”   he told a regional news channel.

The SNDP leader said he would not meet Shah to sort out the problems. It may be recalled that the BJP led NDA had increased its vote share from 6.3 per cent in 2011 to 16 per cent in the 2016 Assembly polls. One of the major factors for the significant increase in vote share was the alliance with BDJS. The BJP could also make big inroads into many constituencies because of BDJS support. Political observers say Vellapally’s growing camaraderie with LDF should set alarm  bells  ringing  for the BJP.