P K Krishnadas elected state BJP president

Thrissur, Nov 5 (UNI) Mr P K Krishnadas was today unopposed elected the president of the Kerala unit of BJP.

State Returning Officer P Radhakrishnan announced Mr Krishnadas, the candidate put up by the faction loyal to Mr P P Mukundan, was elected unanimously as his contender Radhakrishnan kept away from the election.

The election to the post was avoided after the latter, a staunch supporter of outgoing president P S Sreedharan Pillai, withdrew his nomination today.

A 20-member national council was also elected unopposed.

As all efforts to reach a consensus candidate failed, the national leadership interfered and directed the state leaders to settle the issue amicably. Accordingly Mr Radhakrishnan, the official candidate withdrew his nomination paving a smooth entry for Mr Krishnadas.

Though the official faction had fielded former Union Minister O Rajagopal and K Raman Pillai to the national council, Mr Mukundan's faction did not favour the decision. However, to avoid an election the council was elected with four members, including Mr O Rajagopal.

According to party sources, 38 candidates were in the fray for 20 members of the party's national council from the State.

Besides Rajagopal, N M Vijayan, O G Thankappan, K V Sreedharan, C K Padmanabhan, V Balakrishnan Shetty, V Muralidharan, C Prabhakaran, Kuruvanthuraty Chandran, K K Radhakrishnan, S R Balasubramaniam, V Ramankutty, Ms Ratnamma Gopinath, T M V Shenoy, Nedumthara Unnikrishnan, K R Prathabachandra Varma, K R Rajagopal, Ms Rema Raghu Nandan, P K Ravindran and M K Sasidhara were selected to the national council.

The Mukundan faction had an upper hand in the national council as 16 members were nominated by his faction.

Former state presidents K V Sreedharan Master and C K Padmanabhan and TN BJP state president L Ganesh congratulated the newly elected president.

Krishnadas said he would move forward unitedly and would make the party politically strong in the state.

UNI XR/CGV JJ VD RN2000