BJP Announces 27 District Presidents, Highlights Increased Representation of Women and Christians

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed 27 district presidents across Kerala, with four of them being women. The appointments include M.L. Ashwini for Kasaragod, Deepa Puzhakkal for Malappuram, Raji Subrahmanian for Kollam, and Nivedita Subrahmanian for Thrissur North, as announced by BJP State President K. Surendran.

Notably, district presidents from Christian communities were chosen in Thrissur, Kottayam, and Idukki. Justin Jacob has been appointed as the Thrissur City District President. K. Surendran highlighted the increased representation of women in BJP leadership, noting that 34 out of the 269 mandalam (constituency) presidents are women. He challenged other parties to showcase similar levels of women’s representation, citing that the CPM has only two women area committee secretaries and questioned Congress’s women block presidents’ numbers.

Additionally, the BJP has appointed 14 mandalam presidents from Christian communities and 32 from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Surendran emphasized that leaders representing all communities have been included.

Defending the appointment of Palakkad district president Prashanth Sivan, a young leader aged 35, Surendran stated that while the party has set an upper age limit for leadership, there is no minimum age restriction. Drawing a parallel, he remarked, “If A.K. Antony could become the state president at 32, why can’t Prashanth Sivan be a district president at 35?” Surendran assured that there are no internal issues regarding Prashanth’s appointment and confirmed that no resignations would follow this decision.