By P. Sreeekumaran
The Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) is gasping for life, having been battered by an avalanche of allegations of election fund misuse. Adding insult to injury vice-president of the state unit Devan has quit and resigned from the primary membership of the party.
This time around, the allegations have come not from political rivals – they have been making them with unfailing regularity for the past few years – but from a senior party leader himself. Senior BJP leader P. C. George has openly alleged that a large portion of the election funds had been misappropriated. But the controversial leader with an acerbic tongue withdrew the allegations later – obviously under pressure from the party leadership. But his disclosures reveal the rift within the party over the fund misuse allegations.
It was at a BJP meeting in July 2026 that George dropped the bombshell, to the utter shock and embarrassment of the party leaders in Kerala. A video of the speech which has surfaced now has him saying that the funds allocated for the BJP’s poll campaign in Poonjar assembly constituency had been siphoned off! According to the maverick leader who has a tendency to make allegations left and right, he was given an election expenditure statement showing that Rs 4.45 crore had been spent on the election campaign! However, when George contacted the people whose names figured in the list, they said they had not received any money!
George then lashed out at BJP Central Region general secretary Saji Kurikkad for leading the alleged financial irregularities. While the party rules permitted a maximum expenditure of Rs 40 lakh in a constituency, as much as Rs .4 5 crore had been spent in each of the A- Class constituencies!
Even the Rs 31,000 earmarked for booth committees was not given, George alleged, adding that the party was full of such filthy people. According to him, many bought new cars. If you bought a car with money, you will end up in an accident, George said. “God will not spare those who steal. I am cursing them,” he added.
Expectedly the remarks have put the BJP state leadership on the backfoot. The party is already neck-deep in allegations of election fund misuse. But then, George executed a neat U-turn after the party leadership disapproved of his outbursts. In his changed version, George would have the people believe that he was in the dark about the funds received for the Poonjar constituency’s poll campaign! Instead, he accused two local leaders of misleading him into believing that Rs 4.5 crore had been received for the constituency.
According to George, the party leadership showed him the accounts. And he was convinced that there had not been any funds misuse. He even gave Saji Kurikkad, whom he had earlier accused of financial rregularities, a clean chit. Saji, George avowed, was a man of integrity. What he had said earlier was wrong and he would apologise for the same!
Meanwhile, BJP state president Rajiv Chandrasekhar blamed it all on the media. The allegations of financial irregularities were a figment of the media’s imagination, he exclaimed. Then he said that show-cause notices and disciplinary actions taken by the party were its internal affair. Most of the items which appeared in the media were devoid of facts and just fabrications, he opined. “There have been no financial irregularities in the party.
Therefore, no explanation has been sought from any partyman,” Rajiv added. He went on to accuse the media of trying to turn the party’s internal issues into a political controversy by portraying them in a wrong way.
In another development which has badly rattled the Kerala unit of the BJP, vice-president and famous Malayalam filmstar, Devan quit the party. Devan announced his resignation from his post and primary membership of the party at a Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam meeting accusing the party leadership of failing to give him any space to work. He said he had repeatedly tried to contact Rajiv. However, he could not. As he was feeling suffocated, he had no option but to quit, a visibly irritated Devan said, adding that he was not a person who would allow others to dictate to him.
The filmstar who excelled in villain roles, also hinted at more revelations at a later stage. Union Minister and Malayalm film superstar Suresh Gopi contacted Devan after he resigned in an effort to make him change his decision. But Devan has stuck to his guns.
One reason why he decided to leave the party was his differences with the leadership over the party’s political strategy. Devan, who is a staunch follower of Sreenarayana Guru, felt that the party was not in sync with the Guru’s philosophy. It may be mentioned that while he joined the BJP in 2021, he had merged his own party, Kerala People’s Party, in the BJP. He is now planning to revive it and hand over power to the younger leaders.
In the meantime, the equations in the Kerala BJP are set to change with its former chief K. Surendran being made a national secretary in a party shake-up. The appointment is bound to have a bearing on the future role of BJP state chief Rajiv Chandrasekhar, whose position has weakened following allegations of party. (IPA Service)
