Express News Service By

PALAKKAD: As many as 1,500 persons from various prominent political parties joined the state BJP at the ‘Navasangamam’ convention here on Wednesday.

The majority of the defectors belonged to the CPM. CPM former branch secretary T N Prabhakaran, who had previously served as the vice-president of the the Mannarkkad Rural Cooperative Bank, is one of the noted leaders who joined the saffron party.

Former secretary of the Ottappalam block Congress committee Madhavankutty, Radhakrishnan Parakkulam, former Agali panchayat member Biju Kundurkunnu, former joint secretary of the Nanma CITU Union and office secretary of the CPM Sreekrishnapuram Area Committee Office Venugopal, KSKTU leader and two-time former Perincholam CPM branch secretary T Raghavan, former Sholayur panchayat president Pazhaniswamy and Adivasi Congress district secretary K Ravi are a few other eminent political leaders who joined the BJP on Wednesday.

BJP national committee member C K Padmanabhan welcomed the new members. Addressing the convention, Padmanabhan said that the turncoats were being welcomed whole-heartedly, but added that no promises had been made to them. He went on to say that the only reason they had decided to join the saffron party was because “they subscribed to the programmes and policies of the party”.

Padmanabhan said Keralites were “fed up with the anti-development stance of the CPM and its politics of violence and murder” and claimed that corruption in the UPA Government regime was another major factor that led to the political exodus.

He said the Left had fallen from power in West Bengal because it failed to see the writing on the wall due to its “outdated ideology”.

The BJP leader said the repercussions of the mass defection would be reflected in the next local body elections.

Padmanabhan said that while the BJP was being dubbed communal, it was, in fact, political parties like the Congress that fielded candidates on the basis of religion and caste.

The BJP leader claimed that there was nothing wrong in airing the Vijayadashmi address of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and said it was a part of the changing political culture of the country.

BJP state general secretary K Surendran accused the state government of not implementing Centrally-sanctioned schemes. He said the Central Government had sanctioned `3,200 crore for the Cochin shipyard and `2,950 crore for FACT, but the state government continued to blame the Centre of neglect.

BJP national committee members Sobha Surendran and N Sivarajan, state committee members S R Balasubramaniam and K Sreedharan and state general secretaries P Venugopal and P Bhasi also addressed the convention.