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'Metro man' E Sreedharan's entry triggers steady flow of bigwigs to party: BJP
Some of the recent additions to the party include two ex-HC judges, former director-general of Kerala police, former navy admiral, among others.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala unit on Monday said 'Metro man' E Sreedharan’s entry into the party has triggered a steady flow of influential people to the party. It said their numbers will increase as state president K Surendran’s state-wide yatra concludes in the state capital on March 7.
Two former High Court judges, PN Raveendran and V Chidambaresh, joined the party on Sunday. Similarly, former director-general of Kerala police Venugopalan Nair, former navy admiral BR Menon, and All India Radio former director K A Muraleedharan had also joined the party, said the party, adding that more people will join in the coming days.
Union home minister Amit Shah will participate in the concluding session of the rally in Thiruvananthapuram on March 7. The party is likely to announce its first list of candidates and a couple of film stars and former bureaucrats are expected to join the party on the occasion.
“Kerala is really yearning for a change and time is ripe for a third alternative. Both fronts, the UDF and the LDF, are playing into the hands of communal forces. Even the Moppila rebellion of 1921 in Malabar had turned part of the freedom movement as part of the appeasement policy,” K Surendran said, adding the government had taken over thousands of acres of temple land in the state.
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He reiterated the party's position that if voted to power, the BJP will abolish four temple boards (Travancore, Kochi, Guruvayur and Malabar Devasoms) and entrust responsibility to the respective shrines.
“Temples are turning into a milking cow for respective governments. In all temple boards, politicians, at times non-believers, are getting filled. Let temples be managed by its priests and other office-bearers, not the government,” he said.
On Monday, he called on Cardinal George Alancherry, head of the powerful Syro-Malabar church, at diocese headquarters in Ernakulam.
This time, the party’s national leaders will be campaigning extensively in the state despite being a distant third in bipolar politics. The party’s recent performance in the local body elections, however, has given it some hope.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could muster around 16 per cent votes in the local polls. The party thinks it could win a few seats if it improves its vote share. The one seat it won (Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram) in the last assembly elections in 2016 was the party’s only notable poll outing in the state so far.
