Shobha Surendran

Shobha Surendran
BJP National Executive Member
Palakkad Lok Sabha Candidate 2014 BJP
Personal details
Born Vadakkaanchery, Thrissur district
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s) K. K. Surendran

Shobha Surendran (born Vadakkaanchery, Thrissur district, Kerala) is a political leader from Kerala, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has run for election, without success, in several state elections and in the 2014 national election.

Party positions

Sobha Surendran became a member of the BJP National Executive and a Kerala State general secretary.[1] She was elected to the national executive committee of the party in March 2013, and is the first woman BJP leader to hold a position at the national level.[2] She has acted as the state president of BJP Mahila Morcha.[2]

In October 2015 a photograph of K. Surendran eating a meal was published on Facebook captioned "Kerala BJP leader eating beef". When the photo went viral, Surendran responded that it was only an onion curry, and said that in an election period he was strictly vegetarian. Later he said he had never eaten beef in his life.[3] That month Shobha Surendran said the BJP did not oppose selling or eating beef in Kerala, but did object to beef festivals being organised in educational establishments.[4]

Elections

In 2004 Sobha Surendran competed unsuccessfully in the Wadakkancherry by-election. She ran without success for election Ponnani in 2006, and in a by-election in Ernakulam in 2009.[1] Sobha Surendran ran for Puthukkad in the 2011 Kerala state assembly elections, but lost to C. Raveendranath of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). In this election her husband, K. K. Surendran, ran for Kottakkal but lost to M. P. Abdussamad Samadani of the Indian Union Muslim League.[1]

In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Sobha contested for the Palakkad constituency for BJP and lost.[5]

When the Kerala state leadership of the BJP decided to field Shobha Surendran as candidate for the state assembly Palakkad constituency in the May 2016 Kerala state assembly elections there were protests from the local leaders. They wanted to run a local candidate rather than Surendran, who is from Thrissur.[6] However, Sobha Surendran ran for Palakkad while her husband, K. K. Surendran, ran for Ponnani. The couple planned to support each other in their campaigns.[1] Sobha Surendran's opponents were Shafi Parambil of the Indian National Congress and N. N. Krishnadas of the CPI-M.[7] After being defeated in the election Shobha Surendran gave a formal complaint against Corporation vice chairman Krishna Kumar, whom she accused of using local BJP activist to support his own campaign in Malampuzha.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "BJP's power couple", The Hindu, April 28, 2016, retrieved 2016-08-07
  2. 1 2 Smt Shobha Surendran, Kerala BJP, retrieved 2016-08-07
  3. ↑ Sachin Jose (14 October 2015), "Kerala: Photo of K Surendran eating beef goes viral; BJP leader swears it was just onion curry", International Business Times, retrieved 2016-08-05
  4. ↑ "Eating beef is okay: Shobha Surendran", The Hindu, 16 October 2015, retrieved 2016-08-05
  5. ↑ "Election Results 2014 for Palakkad". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Rift in BJP over fielding Shobha Surendran in Palakkad", The Hindu, March 13, 2016, retrieved 2016-08-07
  7. ↑ A. Satish (16 April 2016), "Husband-wife Duo to Try Luck in Kerala Polls", The New Indian Express, retrieved 2016-08-07
  8. ↑ "I was consciously defeated, says Shobha Surendran", Kerala Kaumudi Online, May 22, 2016, retrieved 2016-08-07
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