Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan has resigned from his post on Friday, nine months after he had taken the oath. This comes as BJP’s Kerala unit is rising demands to recall Rajasekharan and field him from Kerela’s Thiruvananthapuram in Lok Sabha elections, which is currently held by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor since 2009.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan press communique has stated that President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted Rajasekharan’s resignation. Assam governor Professor Jagdish Mukhi will be given additional charge of Mizoram until a new governor is appointed for the state. Kummanam Rajasekharan was the seventh governor of the state in the last 5 years. After Vakkom Purushothaman – a former Congress leader – had resigned following his transfer to Nagaland by the government in July 2014, Kamla Beniwal, Vinod Kumar Duggal (additional charge), K. K. Paul (additional with Meghalaya), Aziz Qureshi, Keshari Nath Tripathi (additional charge) and Lt General (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma had served as governor of Mizoram before Rajasekharan.
The decision to recall Rajasekharan back to electoral politics is said to have been taken in BJP general secretary meeting in New Delhi, on Monday. It was also the wish of RSS, BJP’s ideological ally, to field Rajasekharan from Kerela’s seat, reports said.
Rajasekharan started his political career as an RSS activist. In 1987, he resigned from a government post and became a full-time RSS worker. He has been part of various organisations like Kerala’s Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Kshetra Samrakshana Samiti, Balasadanams and Ekal Vidyalayas. He was also secretary of Hindu Aikya Vedi and Sabarimala Ayyappa Sewa Samajam.
BJP’s State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai also said that they welcome the prospect of fielding Rajasekharan from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, from where the party has a good electoral history.
This will make the contest on Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat triangular, between BJP, Congress and CPI.
Rajasekharan has also served as BJP’s state president from 2015-18 until he was transferred to Mizoram as governor. During his tenure, he had helped BJP make an electoral dent in the state, where the national party was still not able to win a seat. He had also contested from Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district during the 2016 Kerela assembly elections, where he had come second to Congress candidate.
