Padmaja's entry to BJP with Modi's knowledge, to receive membership before noon, receives huge assurances

THRISSUR: The move to bring senior leader and former chief minister K Karunakaran's daughter Padmaja Venugopal, KPCC Political Affairs Committee member, to the BJP was with the knowledge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, reports said the BJP state leadership is not aware of it. The report also said a leader in Kerala close to the national leadership pulled the strings for it. Party sources hint that party president J P Nadda has communicated with Padmaja over her entry to the BJP.

Reports said that she will reach the party headquarters in Delhi before noon today and receive the membership. It is heard that a Rajya Sabha seat and party posts has been offered to her. Padmaja has removed the name Congress from her Facebook profile before joining the BJP. Instead, she has added ‘Indian politician from Kerala’ on Facebook.
Padmaja has many times complained to the Congress leadership that she is being neglected for quite some time. However, the leadership neither took any action to consider her complaint seriously nor find a solution to it. Sources close to her said this is what prompted her to take such a step. When Anil Antony joined the BJP, Padmaja had in a Facebook post stated that the Congress leadership should have taken the initiative to prevent such things from happening again.

Padmaja had alleged that the Congress activists had defeated her in Thrissur in the last assembly elections. There was a delay in installing the memorial of K Karunakaran. Padmaja herself had complained to party centres that KPCC chief and opposition leader did not do anything, even though Padmaja worked hard for the construction of the memorial. There was also a complaint that Padmaja, a member of the KPCC Political Affairs Committee, is not being invited to many programmes by the Congress leadership.
Though there were speculations yesterday that she is going to join the BJP, she denied the news via Facebook. The Facebook post was deleted later in the evening. The important move was made at night. Lonappan Nambadan defeated Padmaja, who contested polls from Mukundapuram Lok Sabha constituency, in 2004. Though she contested assembly polls from Thrissur in 2016 and 2021, she was defeated.

Bringing the daughter of K Karunakaran, who was a prominent Congress leader and former chief minister, to their camp, would be a major achievement for the BJP. Moreover, Padmaja is also a prominent activist in the state Congress. Political observers believe that the BJP will be able to create the impression that a large number of leaders from the Congress are coming to their camp at the national level. Meantime, Padmaja's entry to the BJP will be a setback for the Congress as the Lok Sabha elections are round the corner. The leadership will have to sweat a lot to explain this to the allies and the public.