Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (SP)

Kasargod, Aug 24: District BJP president, M Narayana Bhat, who was recently suspended by the state unit of the party for factionalism, has accused K Surendran, state general secretary and district in-charge of the party, as being the root cause for factionalism. In the meantime, Narayana Bhat’s wife, Jayalakshmi Bhat, president of Karadka gram panchayat, has resigned from her post.

Jayalakshmi said she chose to resign from the post in protest against the stand taken by party leadership. She had been fielded as BJP candidate from Kasargod constituency during the last assembly election.

Bhat, who spewed venom at Surendran, who had been put up as BJP candidate from Manjeshwar constituency, and whose shock defeat gave rise to accusations that Narayana Bhat had joined hands with UDF to defeat him, put blame squarely on Surendran.

State BJP president, V Muralidharan, said that a show cause notice has been served on M Narayana Bhat for his anti-party activities. “I have not received any official order from the party about either the suspension or disciplinary action. Only the television channels and press seem to be having knowledge about them,” he said. He reiterated that Surendran has been trying to split the party and that he was directly responsible for factionalism in the district unit.

Narayana Bhat noted that there had been no complaints against him till the assembly result came out. He accused Surendran of misleading the state leaders of the party. He said that he and some other party leaders had written to party’s national secretary and state in-charge, Muralidharan Rao, asking him to relieve Surendran from the post of the party in-charge of Kasargod district unit. He said the party is yet to respond to these requests.  He said that Surendran is yet to file details of expenditure relating to assembly election with the party, and that he had misused party funds. Bhat added that he had complained about misuse of funds, to Muralidharan and D V Sadananda Gowda.