The Kerala BJP is hoping that the visit to the State by national party president Amit Shah will give a new energy to the organisation just when it is chalking out plans to improve its position in the local bodies elections to be held in September, 2015 and try to open account in the Assembly in the 2016 polls.
Shah is expected to arrive in Kerala on August 30 on a three-day visit meant mainly to advise the State unit on the strategies to be pursued in the preparation for the local bodies poll and to put an end to the differences in the top leadership. According to State BJP leadership, Shah has instructed the State unit to avoid holding any celebrations upon his arrival.
The State BJP’s plan is to kick-start the campaign for the local bodies election early, most probably in October which would give a whole year to its workers to take its message and intended programmes to every nook and corner. State party president V Muraleedharan has said that he had received a similar instruction from the national leadership.
As per the present schedule, Amit Shah does not have many public programmes in Kerala and almost his entire time during the stay here will be dedicated to looking at organisational matters and the strategies to be adopted for the local bodies election. He is expected to meet civic bodies representatives of the BJP during his visit.
Immediately after the 16th lok Sabha elections, the national leadership of the BJP had decided to intervene in the Kerala party affairs in order to end the differences of opinion among various top leaders. This would be one of the main missions Amit Shah would be undertaking during his forthcoming visit to the State.
Though the BJP has not yet been able to open account in elections either to the 140-member State Assembly or to the 20 lok Sabha seats, leaders say that the party is not unrealistic to expect winning double the number of local bodies seats it had bagged in the 2010 election, especially if it starts campaigning much in advance.
In the 2010 local bodies polls, the BJP had almost doubled its seats from 550 in the 2005 election to 970 seats apart from managing to come second in more than 1,000 wards. Another factor that gives confidence to the BJP is its performance in the recent lok Sabha election in which its vote-share increased to 10.82 percent from 6.4 per cent in the 2009 polls.