Thiruvananthapuram: Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) national leadership has stated that the party aims to govern Kerala, not just increasing the number of legislators representing the party in the Assembly.
BJP national president JP Nadda reached Kerala to supervise and strategise the election tactics for the party.
Under the ‘Mission Kerala’ project planned by the State leadership for the Assembly Elections, 40 constituencies have been decided as 'A-Plus' constituencies. But, Nadda has directed the State leadership to formulate strategies to win in at least 71 constituencies in Kerala and thus govern the State.
Nadda has advised the State leadership to field popular film and serial personalities and public figures for the party, besides the front line State leaders of BJP.
After ensuring that MP and actor Suresh Gopi, former DGPs TP Sen Kumar Jacob Thomas and Cinema and television personality Krishnakumar would contest, the national leadership has directed the State leaders to identify more such personalities and field them from the appropriate constituencies.
On March 3, K Surendran, state president of BJP, is slated to lead a rally starting from Kasaragod. Once the rally concludes, the State leadership will be planning to start with the final candidate selection.
In Thiruvananthapuram district, besides Nemom, BJP is planning to win 5 more constituencies.
The party has an eye on Kazhakkottam, Thiruvananthapuram, Vattiyoorkavu, Kattakkada and Varkala constituencies, besides Nemom. In the previous election, the BJP was second in Kazhakkoottam and Vattiyoorkavu.
At Kazhakkoottam, Union Minister V Muralidharan was fielded by the party while at Vattiyoorkavu, Kummanam Rajashekaran was the candidate.
Union Minister V Muralidharan would be the BJP candidate at Kazhakkoottam this time also. V V Rajesh, BJP Thiruvananthapuram District President is to contest from Vattirookavu.
At Nemom, which is a sure seat for the BJP, the party has decided to field Kummanam Rajshekharan.
PK Krishnadas who had contested from Kattakkada is to contest from the same seat this time too.
Shobha Surendran, who has been in a cold war with the State leadership of the party for quite some time now, might be fielded from Varkala.
BJP is hopeful about Varkala as the party had performed well in Varkala in 2019 Lok Sabha election and in 2020 December civic body polls.
The party is thinking of bringing actor and MP Suresh Gopi to Thiruvananthapuram.
Rajashekharan, a popular hotelier, may be fielded by the party from Neyyattinkara.
At Parassala, former district president Karamana Jayan and at Nedumangad, former State spokesperson J R Padmakumar would be the candidates.
Sudheer Attingal, the State president of Dalit Morcha, is being considered for the Attingal constituency.
Meanwhile, there has been no concrete decision yet from the national leadership on state president K Surendran contesting the polls.
Surendran might be fielded from Konni or Thrissur as directed by the BJP central leadership.
Actor Suresh Gopi is also being considered for the Thrissur seat.
Former DGPs, T.P. Sen Kumar and Jacob Thomas, who joined BJP, would be given an opening in Thrissur district.
Thomas might be fielded from Iringalakkuda which a Christian belt, while Sen Kumar might be fielded from Chalakkudy.
The leadership thinks that if a good candidate is fielded against Ramesh Chennithala at Harippad, the constituency can be won. R Balashankar, who has the support of NSS, is expected to contest from here.
The party is also planning to show its strength in Pinarayi Vijayan’s constituency Dharmadam.
PKD Nambiar, a locally influential personality likely to be the BJP candidate from Dharmadam.
Though the party had plans to field M T Ramesh from Kozhikode North, Ramesh has expressed his wish to contest from Chengannur.
The party is hopeful that their candidates would be able to perform well in Sulthan Battery in Wayanad district, Thalassery and Koothuparamaba in Kannur District in Northern Kerala.
The national leadership has instructed the state leaders to select candidates considering their public image and influence at the grass-root level, so as to attract about 7,000 to 15,000 more votes than what the BJP usually gets.
The final candidate selection would be done by the BJP considering all these factors. This time, the candidate list is sure to have a few Christians too.
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