But more worrying for the BJP may be the way the probe report says a powerful coterie led by Mukundan, who had made a lateral entry into the BJP as the state organising secretary nominated by the RSS in the late 1980s, has been functioning. According to the report, Mukundan and his men worked overtime to ensure that the BJP candidate lost by transferring votes en-bloc to both the Left and Congress candidates, witholding campaign funds, destroying posters and campaign material and even getting a state vice- president, V N Unni, assaulted besides ransacking the BJP office itself.

Spokesperson Shekhar has reminded the probe committee that top leaders of the both the Left and Congress-led fronts have stated that Mukundan had actually sold them BJP votes. Though Mukundan was stripped of his RSS Pracharak role as well as his Kerala charge and was ordered to keep himself only to Tamil Nadu and Andaman & Nicobar a few months ago, he still holds considerable sway in the Kerala unit.

“We would like to make it unambiguously clear that the credibility of the party in Kerala is at stake. Unless an impact is created by corrective action, there will be a massive erosion of the ranks and the party will lose its base in Kerala,’’ the report concludes.