The BJP on Saturday nominated senior party leader and former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan as its candidate for the April 6 bypoll to the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu.
As the campaign for the Assembly polls heats up, union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah will also visit Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Sunday.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MP H Vasantha Kumar in August last year due to COVID-19.
The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC), which met earlier under its National President JP Nadda and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, approved the candidature of Radhakrishnan. He is also a former BJP State president.
The BJP had on late Friday night finalised its seat-sharing deal with its ally AIADMK for the April 6 Assembly polls in the state where the latter, the lead partner, allocated 20 seats to the saffron party, besides the Kanyakumari parliamentary segment.
Radhakrishnan had won from Kanyakumari in the 2014 parliamentary and inducted in then Modi-led NDA dispensation as Minister of State.
He lost the subsequent 2019 Lok Sabha elections to Kumar from the same constituency. He was then MoS Finance and Shipping.
Union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah will be on a one-day visit to Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Sunday to attend various important programmes.
According to a party statement here, Shah will first visit Suchindram Temple in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu ,and offer prayers. He will then launch “Vetri Kodi Eandhi” (Vijay Sankalp Mahasamaprk Abhiyaan - a door to door campaign) in Suchindram Town, Kanyakumari.
The BJP said Shah will hold a massive roadshow “Vetri Kodi Eandhi” fom Hindu college to Veppamoodu Kamaraj statue in Kanyakumari. After the roadshow, the Union Home Minister will address a Karyakarta Sabha of the party at Uduppi Hotel in Kanyakumari .
Shah will then proceed to Kerala where he will visit Shri Belur Math at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and offer prayers. After that, he will address the Valedictory function of BJP’s Kerala Vijay Yatra at Shanghumukham in Thiruvananthapuram.