V Muraleedharan

Early life and politics

Vannathanveetil Muraleedharan was born to Vannathanveetil Gopalan and Nampally Vellamvelly Devaki on 12 December 1958 at Eranjoli, Thalassery in Kannur District. He is a graduate in English Literature from Govt. Brennan College, Thalassery. He was closely associated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) right from his school days.

His Political activities began during the days of National Emergency that gripped India from June 1975 to March 1977. In 1978 as the Taluk President, he led ABVP in Thalassery. He became the Kannur District Secretary in 1979 and the State Joint Secretary of ABVP in 1980. When his family fell in crisis following his father’s death, he entered government service as LD clerk at District Industries Centre, Kannur. Muraleedharan, whose house was located in a CPM stronghold, was accused of associating with ABVP and RSS. He could not go home due to threats on his life. Soon in October,1980 Muraleedharan was implicated by the government and was kept in judicial custody for two months. In retaliation, Nayanar was locked up and gheraoed [sic?] by ABVP activists at Delhi. The case against him had invited wide public attention and was later dismissed by court.

Muraleedharan shifted his activities to the RSS karyalay at Kozhikode and became a full-time worker of ABVP. He quit his job later and was elected as the State Organizing Secretary of ABVP in 1983 at the age of 25. From 1987 to 1990, he also held the additional responsibility as All India Secretary of ABVP During his 11 years tenure (1983–1994) as the State Organizing Secretary, he had the privilege of a close association with Shri Govindacharya and Shri.Dattatraya Hosabale, who were then the successive South Zone Organizing Secretaries of the ABVP. The ABVP team during 1983-1994 at the state and national level had leaders including Shri. Ananth Kumar (Karnataka), Sushil Modi (Bihar), Shri. Jagat Prakash Nadda, (Himachal Pradesh), Shri. Muraleedhara Rao (Rajasthan) Shri. Om Prakash Kohli (All India President), Professor Late Bal Apte, (All India President), Vinodh Tawde and Chandrakant Patil (All India General Secretaries.

Muraleedharan left for Mumbai when he was appointed All India General Secretary of ABVP for the term 1994-1996. Mumbai was found to be the ideal base to carry out his responsibilities nationwide as the All India general secretary of ABVP. In his term, he had close interactions with education departments in various state governments, Vice Chancellors of various Universities, University Grants Commission, Association of Indian Universities and educational research Institutions like NIEPA, NCERT, and NAAC etc. The organisation held seminars on Educational Changes, financing of higher Education, Pros and cons of Apprenticeship in Law Education, foreign university issues and more. Muraleedharan returned to Kerala in 1997 on a research project of Khadi and Village Industries Commission at Trivandrum.

Personal life

In 1998 Muraleedharan married Dr. K.S. Jayasree, who is presently a Sanskrit lecturer at S N College, Chelannoor. The family lives at Eranhipalam, Kozhikode.

Leadership of BJP

V. Muraleedharan's formal entry into the fore of the BJP took place during the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. He was deputed to assist Shri. Venkaiah Naidu at the BJP Central Election Control Room at New Delhi.

In 1999, after Vajpayee government assumed office, Muraleedharan was appointed as the Vice Chairman of Nehru Yuva Kendra, under Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.(*5,6) He also became the chief coordinator of the committee chaired by the Prime minister for celebrating the golden jubilee of Indian Republic in the year of 2000. From 2002 to 2004 he was the Director General of Nehru Yuva Kendra and convener of Youth Employment Generation Task Force under Khadi and Village Industry commission(*5,6,8). As the office bearer of Nehru Yuva Kendra he received National attention for creating National Reconstruction Corps, which later came to be called Rashtriya Sadbhawana Yojana. He had been the founder president and currently a director board member of National Yuva Cooperative Society created for encouraging entrepreneurship and savings among youth. V. Muraleedharan had participated in the World Youth Peace Summit Asia - Pacific conference representing India at Bangkok in 2004.(*9) He has presented about 25 papers on National educational policy, higher education system, creation of employment opportunity, Environmental issues and developmental problems at different National and International seminars.

In 2004 Muarleedharan was appointed as the National convener of NGO cell of BJP. Thereafter in 2005, he was made the All India convener of BJP training cell.(*10)

During his tenure as the BJP Kerala Vice president (2006–2010), his major assignments were to provide ideological orientation to the party workers in Kerala as part of training cell activities and impart and oversee training to the local body members of the BJP. He contested for Loksabha election from Kozhikode Parliamentary Constituency in 2009.

In January 2010 he was elected as the State President of the Kerala BJP. He was elected for his second term in the office in January 2013. A good orator, strong and untiring leader with methodical organising skills, V Muraleedharan is instrumental in strengthening the party at its grass root ensuring monthly general body meetings at booth level.

The Kerala BJP had a vote share of 10.8 percent in the 2014 Lok Sabha Election whereas it recorded 6.4 percent in 2009. 2014 also witnessed substantial number of CPI(M) cadre deserting their party and joining BJP due to the ideological disarray in CPI(M) and the growing acceptance of the BJP after 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The 2014-2015 membership drive has expanded the party membership base from 5.75 lakhs to 20 lakhs.

Positions held