Despite the BJP launching a nationwide campaign in defense of the three core agricultural laws, the party’s sole lawmaker in Kerala, O Rajagopal, backed an Assembly resolution on Thursday calling for the repeal of the laws.
However, hours later, Rajagopal issued a statement saying that he had, in fact, vehemently opposed the resolution and blamed President P Sreeramakrishnan for not seeking a recount of those who opposed it.
Hours earlier, Rajagopal spoke in favor of the agricultural laws in the Assembly, but when the President put it to the vote, he supported the resolution.
Addressing the media outside the Assembly, the senior BJP leader justified his position and told reporters: “I have a different opinion on certain points of the resolution. But I have supported the resolution in its entirety. I have supported the resolution, which called for the farm laws to be withdrawn. That is why I did not vote against the resolution ”.
On why he did not oppose the resolution, he said: “That is the democratic spirit. I stayed with the general consensus … On this type of issue, what we need is a compromise. I find nothing wrong with a BJP legislator supporting the resolution against the Center’s agricultural laws. “
While the party only said it would analyze Rajagopal’s statement, and BJP state chairman K Surendran said the issue has not come to his knowledge, in the evening Rajagopal issued another statement blaming the president.
“The Speaker violated all precedents. It did not seek a separate count of those who support the resolution and those who oppose it. I had made my position clear in my speech on the resolution. I have not opposed the laws and I am not against the central law, “he said.
Rajagopal, who opened the BJP account in Kerala in the 2016 elections, has also differed in the past with the party’s position.
Two weeks ago, after the results of the local body, when the BJP state chairman Surendran said that the cross vote of LDF and UDF had led to the defeat of the BJP in the municipal corporation of Thiruvananthapuram, Rajagopal had said: “ There is no evidence of cross voting. We couldn’t win the trust of the voters. The party focused solely on the gold smuggling scandal against the government. This is not functional. People seemed to have been concerned only with the benefits they got from the government; not about scandals, ” he said.
Last December, when the Assembly passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Law, Rajagopal again did not object.
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