Under new chief Kummanam Rajasekharan who the other day declared that the goal was not just to “open account” but to capture power in the State, the Kerala BJP has stepped up its preparations for the Assembly election to be held in less than five months. The party has already started identifying potential candidates to be fielded in important constituencies.
Special attention will be given to those constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod districts where it has the potential to win but has lost in consecutive elections due to what it considers as a “hypocritical and opportunistic” behind-the-screen alliance between the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-headed lDF.
It is almost certain even at this stage that octogenarian leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal will be the party candidate in Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram district. Rajagopal had claimed the second place in Nemom in the 2011 election by bagging 37.44 per cent of the total polled votes while the victor, Marxist party’s V Sivankutty, had got only 42 per cent votes.
Nemom is one of the seats the BJP considers as absolutely winnable. There is also a plan to field celebrities and other cultural personalities who are sympathetic to the cause propounded by the party as candidates in crucial constituencies. As per the plan, mega filmstar ‘Shotgun’ Suresh Gopi could be fielded in the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district.
State BJP spokesman VV Rajesh was the party candidate in this seat in the 2011 election in which former State Congress president K Muraleedharan was elected. As per the voting pattern seen in the recent local bodies election, the BJP leadership feels that it is not impossible to win the Vattiyoorkavu seat.
“The thinking in the party is that there is no time to waste. For the BJP, what is going to happen in April (or May) is not just an electoral battle but a historical war in which we will be fighting to free Kerala from the two insincere, corruption-ridden coalitions. We are sure that the State will stand by us in this,” said a senior BJP leader from the Malabar region.
BJP sources admitted that various outfits in the Sangh Pariwar, especially the RSS, had been actively participating in the efforts to prepare the party for facing the election. Extensive collection of data from the grassroots on the tendency, problems and aspirations of the electorate is being done by these organisations, they say.
The BJP’s goal of opening account in the State Assembly was modified into capturing power a year ago first by none other than party president Amit Shah who wanted the Haryana experience to be repeated in Kerala. New State president Kummanam has already made it clear that his principal task is to ensure the realisation of this dream.
“The civic election was a very important test for us. We proved that we were right in our assessment of the Kerala political situation by more-than doubling our representation in the local bodies and achieving a big leap in vote-share. The Assembly election will see a rewriting of the political history of the State,” the BJP leader claimed.
Sangh Pariwar strategists think that half the battle has been won with the success in bringing the SNDP Yogam, outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas who constitute over 21 per cent of the State’s population, and several other majority communities close to the BJP. The BJP and SNDP
Yogam had entered into an informal alliance for the local bodies election.
The coming days will see more Sangh Pariwar efforts to attract the major majority community outfit, Nair Service Society of the Hindu upper caste Nairs, a friend of the Congress and UDF traditionally, to the BJP. It is believed that Kummanam with his close connections with the NSS leadership will be able to do this. Nairs form 17 per cent of the Kerala population.