Kerala polls: BJP determined to create history

The BJP in Kerala, under the leadership of its young president V Muraleedharan, is making a determined effort this time not only to open account in the State Legislature but also to become a significant force in the Opposition. The goal is to win a minimum of five seats in the 140-member Assembly.

The party has completed its preliminary preparations for the April 13 polls, and its greatest advantage in comparison to the two main fronts in the State is that it will not have to face the complications involved in seat-sharing. State party chief V Muraleedharan has said that the list of candidates for all the 140 constituencies would be published on Monday.

All the frontline leaders of the party like former Union minister O Rajagopal, former presidents CK Padmanabhan and PK Krishnadas, senior office-bearers like AN Radhakrishnan, MT Ramesh and K Surendran and leaders like VV Rajesh of the Yuva Morcha and Sobha Surendran of the Mahila Morcha would be in the fray.

An informal list of candidates for almost all the seats has already been drawn up but the final decision would come only after Monday’s leadership meeting at Thiruvananthapuram. Surendran is likely to be candidate in Manjeswaram, where the party had been claiming second position for the past many elections,

Party sources said that every measure had been taken to ensure that there would be no complaints of vote-leak or vote-trade in this election. Also, Muraleedharan made it clear that there would be no compromise on any point with the two main fronts – the CPI(M)-;led LDF or the Congress-led UDF.

The feedback the leadership is getting from the grassroots is that the 41-day Kerala Raksha Pada Yatra that Muraleedharan led from Kasaragod in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south has been able to instill a new vigour and confidence in the party workers and supporters even in the rural areas where critics used to say the BJP is weak.

Leaders also claim that the RSS would extend its whole-hearted support to the party in its electoral endevour this time. “It is not that the Sangh had not supported the party in the former elections. But this time the situation is different. The recent Sangh programme of contacting one lakh families would prove advantageous in many ways,” said a leader from Kannur.

The BJP will focus its campaign on the alleged corruption and callousness of the Congress and the CPI(M) and the coalitions they are heading. The plan is to expose to the masses how the two fronts were allegedly trying to conceal each other’s corruption in issues like the Rs 85,000-crore illegal lotteries scam.

One of the main issues in focus would be the callous attitude of the two coalitions towards pilgrim centres and places of worship. The BJP is holding the successive governments headed by the CPI(M) and the Congress for the situations that led to the January 14 stampede at Pullumedu in which 102 Sabarimala pilgrims were kille

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