Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Kummanam Rajashekharan on Wednesday removed State Secretary VV Rajesh and Yuvamorcha State General Secretary Praful Krishna from their official posts following orders from the party’s national leadership. While Rajesh had allegedly leaked a party report about a medical college scam to media persons, Krishna had shared information on fake party receipts which were allegedly used for fund collection during the party’s national executive meeting in Kozhikode.

”Action has been taken against him [VV Rajesh] for breach of discipline,” the Kerala BJP chief said. “His actions tarnished the image of the party. Kummanam informed both Rajesh and Krishna about the decision directly. “Discussions leading to the action have come out of the communication between Kummanam and the central leadership,” officials said. “Not even the members in the party core committee were aware of such a move.”

“The action has been taken as per the directives of party national leadership,” unidentified officials said. “The central leadership wants the leaders here to understand that any attempts to defame the party and destabilise it in public will not be tolerated anymore,” The Times of India reported.

Action is also likely to be taken against BJP leaders KP Sreesan and AM Nazeer, who failed to maintain the secrecy of the report, reported The News Minute.

The medical college scam

On July 21, the Kerala BJP had expelled one of its leaders, RS Vinod, over bribery charges. A party investigation had found that Vinod had taken Rs 5.6 crore from a private medical college in exchange for accreditation from the Medical Council of India. An internal inquiry, conducted by BJP leaders Sreesan and Nazeer, had revealed that Vinod had taken a bribe from Bharat Dharma Jana Sena leader R Shaji to get an MCI approval for SR Medical College and Research Centre in Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram.

The matter came to light when some content of the report was leaked to the media. Party state General Secretary MT Ramesh was also accused of taking a bribe of Rs 5 crore in exchange for MCI approvals.