Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala had completed their candidate selection and moved on with the poll campaign activities announcing that the party would win Kerala this time. Metroman E Sreedharan, former DGP Jacob Thomas, former Calicut University Vice-Chancellor Dr M Abdul Salam, former PSC Chairman Dr K S Radhakrishnan, film star and Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi were all lined up while the party leadership concluded the candidate list.
The BJP candidates from Thalassery and Guruvayur have moved the High Court. Monday is the last date for withdrawing nominations. On request from the petitioners to consider the petition urgently, the High Court is to hold a special sitting to consider the BJP candidates’ plea, on March 21, Sunday.
Senior Advocate Ramkumar and Advocate Sreekumar are to argue for the BJP candidates. The nominations were rejected citing ‘technical reasons’ during the scrutiny stage.
A huge list of star campaigners including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have also scheduled their visits to Kerala to join the BJP campaign. Amit Shah is to reach on March 25 and join the campaign at Thalassery. But, the BJP state leadership is now being asked a question how their national leader would campaign for the party in a constituency where the BJP has no candidate.
Also read: Kerala: Nominations of BJP candidates rejected in Thalassery, Guruvayur, ally AIADMK's in Devikulam
The nomination papers of N Haridasan, Kannur BJP District president and the chosen candidate for the party at Thalassery constituency has been rejected. Thalassery is the constituency where the BJP could aggregate the most number of votes (22125 votes) in the 2016 Assembly elections.
It is plain carelessness that has turned out to be a bane for the BJP in Thalassery. As per rules, while filing nomination as a candidate of a national party, form A, must have the party president’s seal and signature. However, the nomination papers filed by Haridasan and K Lijesh, a dummy candidate, did not have the party president’s seal and sign. The papers were rejected on these grounds. The district president himself has filed the nomination as a candidate as the party held high hopes in the constituency. Presently, Thalassery is a CPM seat.
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Similarly, the nomination filed by the BJP candidate at Guruvayoor constituency, another place where the BJP has much influence, has also been rejected. The nomination filed by Advocate Nivedhitha, Mahila Morcha state president was rejected for not adhering to the criteria in the affidavit of the State president. There was no dummy candidate for the BJP in Guruvayoor. In Guruvayoor, which is CPM’s sitting seat, Advocate Nivedhitha was prepared for another election with hopes of performing well for the BJP.
The BJP got yet another blow as the NDA’s Devikulam candidate’s nomination papers were also rejected. The nomination of R Dhanalakshmi of AIADMK - which is an ally of the NDA - was rejected because the affidavit in Form 26 was not filled completely. The nomination of the NDA dummy candidate at Devikulam was also rejected earlier.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, the AIADMK was at the third position and the BJP was at the fourth. It is to exploit this situation that the BJP in Kerala has pledged support to the AIADMK which is an NDA ally in Tamil Nadu. At Devikulam, which is the sitting seat of the CPM, the LDF and the UDF have fielded fresh faces for the Assembly polls in April.
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