Rejecting the speculation that the BJP might not field its candidate in a particular lok Sabha seat in Kerala as part of a strategy to help a particular ally of the Congress, State BJP president V Muraleedharan said on Thursday that the party would contest all the 20 seats in the State.
Stating that the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led NDA would work wonders in Kerala in the coming lok Sabha election, he said on the sidelines of the BJP’s State office-bearers’ meet that the party was yet to finalise its candidates’ list for the State though some proposals had already come up.
Muraleedharan admitted that there were proposals to field senior party leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal and general secretary K Surendran in the Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod seats respectively. A final decision on the candidates’ list is expected to come out after the meeting of the state BJP chiefs in Delhi.
The other names being considered for candidature in Kerala, according to sources, include Sobha Surendran (Alappuzha), Alphonse Kannanthanam (Pathanamthitta) and State general secretaries AN Radhakrishnan (Chalakudy) and KP Sreesan (Kozhikode). However, there are divergent opinions on the constituencies proposed for some of them.
Rumours spread across the Kerala media world on Thursday that the BJP was unlikely to field its candidate in the Kottayam constituency as part of a move to help Jose K Mani of the Kerala Congress (M), son of State Finance Minister KM Mani, who was expected to be fielded by the Congress-led ruling UDF there. Jose said he had no information on any such development.
Speculations in this regard had got some credibility in the context of the participation by Kerala Congress (M) vice-chairman PC George, Government Chief Whip, in the Run for Unity marathon, conceived by Modi as part of constructing a giant statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on December 15.