Few days after an allegation surfaced that Kerala BJP President K Surendran gave Rs 10 lakh to popular tribal leader CK Janu to come back to the NDA's fold, another candidate has started a new row. This time, the accusation has been levelled by a Bahujan Samaj Party man named K Sundara from Manjeshwar, who has alleged that he was given Rs 2 .5 lakh and a mobile phone by the BJP to withdraw his nomination from the Manjeshwar seat.
K Sundara whose name is similar to that of K Surendran, was a namesake candidate from the Manjeshwar constituency in 2016 Assembly elections. In 2016, K Surendran lost in Manjeshwar by just 89 votes while BSP candidate K Sundara got more than 400 votes. In the 2021 elections too, Sundara filed his nomination and later withdrew. At the time of withdrawal however, he had alleged that BJP workers had threatened him. Sundara has now changed his statement and claims he was paid a bribe.
"They (BJP) had pressured me to withdraw my nomination. They gave me Rs 2.5 lakh. Two lakhs they handed over to my mother and 50,000 was given to me. They also gave me a mobile phone that cost Rs 15,000," Sundara told the media.
He also told the media that he was offered the ownership of a wine parlour in Karnataka by the BJP after elections, but they did not contact him later. "The BJP Mandalam president gave the money and others were also with him. I had asked for Rs 15 lakh," Sundara said.
After K Sundara had withdrawn his nomination, he was ousted from the BSP.
BJP Kasaragod unit has refuted the allegations claiming that it is a conspiracy by the Indian Union Muslim League and the CPI(M).
This new allegation against BJP has come after Janadhipathya Rashtriya Party (JRP) state treasurer Praseetha Azhikode alleged that K Surendran gave Rs 10 lakh to CK Janu to join back the NDA. CK Janu had returned to NDA after a gap of two years on March 7, 2020 and was welcomed back into the fold at the concluding function of the BJP’s Vijya Yatra in Thiruvananthapuram, in which Home Minister Amit Shah took part.
Praseetha released an audio clip of a conversation that she purportedly had with Surendran, days before Amit Shah’s visit, in which they discussed paying CK Janu Rs 10 lakh. In the voice clip, the male voice, which Parseetha claims is that of Surendran, agrees to give money to Janu.
While Praseetha has stood firm on her allegation, both Surendran and Janu have denied it.