THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will lead the BJP in Kerala again. The announcement of his appointment as the BJP state president will be made tomorrow. It is clear that the BJP is aiming for a new experiment in the state by making Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who has no Sangh Parivar background, the president. The national leadership believes that the party in the state, which has been stagnating due to group squabbles despite having a very favorable environment for growth, will get a new energy with his arrival.

Rajeev had faced a tough fight against Shashi Tharoor in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections. He lost by a small margin. The party presented him as the face of developmental politics in the changing times. Therefore, he was able to win votes beyond party politics.

Having been elected to the Rajya Sabha thrice from Karnataka, this was the first time he had sought the mandate in Kerala. He had performed well in that. When wireless phones were still a dream, Rajeev first launched a pager and then a mobile phone in the Indian market and in 1994, through BPL, he surprised the country. Most of the party members believe that with Rajeev becoming the president, the BJP in Kerala will also make a new history and surprise. After the Lok Sabha elections, Rajeev Chandrasekhar had started his work centered in Thiruvananthapuram. Along with this, he had also bought his own residence. Therefore, there were already rumors that he might become the state president.

The national leadership was taking steps to avoid competition as much as possible to choose a new president in the Kerala BJP, which was a scene of group squabble. The present state president K Surendran, assumed office in February 2020. He was then given an extension of his term.