Date:28/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/28/stories/2005112810500100.htm

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Ganesh holds talks with BJP leaders

Special Correspondent

Sreedharan Pillai's resignation as State president not yet accepted

P.S. Sreedharan Pillai

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secretary L. Ganesh arrived here on Sunday to decipher the reasons for the humiliating performance of the party candidate C.K. Padmanabhan in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha byelection.

Talking to presspersons who met him soon after his arrival, Mr. Ganesh said the party was yet to accept the resignation of P.S. Sreedharan Pillai as its State president.

Mr. Sreedharan Pillai had submitted his resignation owning up moral responsibility for the election result, which saw Mr. Padmanabhan polling just around 36,000 votes in the constituency where the BJP claims to have at least 1.25 lakhs solid votes and had polled close to 2.3 lakhs votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections with the former Union Minister O. Rajagopal as its candidate. Mr. Pillai had been asked to continue till further arrangements were made, Mr. Ganesh said.

He said the letter was with party president L.K. Advani. The State leaders of the party had all lost their balance following the election results, he said.

Mr. Ganesh said leaders were quite unhappy about the poor showing of the party. The strong reaction from some State leaders over the debacle in the bypoll should be taken in this light, he said.

Mr. Ganesh said he was here to study the ground reality and the reasons for erosion in BJP votes.

Apart from examining the reasons for the party's debacle at the hustings, Mr. Ganesh has the tough mission of bringing some sort or order in the faction-ridden State unit of the party. He said he would be here for the next three days for consultations with all the party leaders in the State.

Mr. Rajagopal, recouping from a cataract surgery, is in the capital city. Mr. Sreedharan Pillai and the former State president of the party P.P. Mukundan are expected to reach here on Monday. Supporters of Mr. Mukundan are demanding that the resignation be accepted and a new leadership, who is acceptable to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), be put in place. Mr. Ganesh on Sunday had one-to-one discussions with some of the district presidents of the party. On Monday he would have talks with all the State executive committee members, party sources said. The BJP State headquarters Mararji Bhavan is yet to recover from the shock of the byelection result.

Even before the result was out, the candidate Mr. Padmanabhan had publicly accused some sections in the party of sabotaging the election.

And the day after the votes were counted, Mr. Sreedharan Pillai, announcing his resignation, had said that the "BJP votes were hijacked without my knowledge... and both the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) have got our votes."