Credibility, integrity and clean image will be the main criteria for the Kerala BJP in selecting its candidates for the coming Assembly election in which it hopes not just to “open account” but to become a decisive force in the State’s legislative process as well. The preparations of the party for the crucial polls have already reached the final stage.
Encouraged by the bright performance it could put up in the local bodies election held in November, the State BJP has decided to field candidates in all the 140 constituencies, though some of these seats are expected to be given to possible allies like the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), the party of the State’s majority communities.
The party hopes to complete the process of selecting candidates by the end of the first week of March, thus becoming the first party in the State to draw up the list of candidates. It is expected that one-thirds of the BJP candidates for the Assembly polls will be new faces famous in the fields of film, culture, etc.
The entire electioneering will be done under the close watch of the central leadership. However, it will directly supervise the campaign in more than two dozen seats which the party thinks it has strong chances of winning. A recent survey had predicted that the BJP might win five or six seats in Kerala but leaders say that this is an underestimation of the party’s real strength.
The BJP had increased its vote share in Kerala in last November’s local bodies election to 18 percent in comparison to the 10.3 percent it had got in the lok Sabha election of 2014. BJP leaders are confident that the party will be able to take this vote-share to above 20 percent in the Assembly election to be held before the second week of May.
The party will launch a week-long mass contact programme across Kerala in which local-level leaderships and workers will ensure participation of voters in large numbers. The main goal of the mass contact programme is to take the message of the achievements the Narendra Modi Government has made during its 20-month rule in the Centre to the electorate.
The party’s campaign will be based on these achievements while it will also discuss extensively the stunted development of the State under the two main political fronts, rise in prices of essential commodities, the politics of violence allegedly being pursued especially by the CPI(M), the policy of minority appeasement of the two fronts, etc.
According to sources, the central leadership has given strict instructions to the State leaders to take utmost care not to irk the possible allies of the party, particularly the BDJS, which had come into being in December. The BDJS is controlled by the SNDP Yogam, outfit of the Hindu lower caste Ezhavas who constitute over 21 percent of the State’s population.
Though the BDJS was formed with the blessings of the Sangh Pariwar, SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, who had declared the formation of the new party, had a few days ago embarrassed the BJP by claiming that secret talks were going on between the BDJS and the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-headed lDF.
Vellappally’s disclosure had embarrassed the official leadership of the BDJS also, forcing his son and party president Thushar Vellappally to offer a quick explanation that his organization had no problems with the BJP. “I am the president of the BDJS and it is up to me to speak about such things. Vellappally Natesan is the chief of the SNDP Yogam,” he had said.