BJP campaign on in Kerala ( Daily Pioneer )

BJP campaign on in Kerala
14/03/2011 00:09:07 VR Jayaraj | Thiruvananthapuram - Daily Pioneer

Even as both the CPI(M) and Congress are still struggling to settle seat-sharing disputes with their respective front partners, several of the BJP’s candidates have already begun campaigning in their constituencies.

Leading among the BJP candidates who started campaigning early are former union minister O Rajagopal and former State party president PK Krishnadas in their respective constituencies of Nemom and Kattakkada in Thiruvananthapuram district. The BJP candidate to start full-fledged campaign first is State general secretary K Surendran in Manjeswaram.

Rajagopal started his campaign by visiting the poor colonies in the constituency to have first-hand knowledge of the problems the people there were facing and also to familiarize with them. His campaign managers want him to use the time-advantage for establishing a one-to-one contact with as many voters as possible.

Rajagopal says that the condition of the poor man’s colonies has failed to improve despite the tall claims of the successive governments of the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF. He sounds confident when he says that the people, fed up with the hypocritical promises of the politicians in both these camps, would stand by the BJP this time.

Rajagopal has reasons to be confident in Nemom. He had contested in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat of which Nemom is an Assembly segment in 2004. Though he was pushed into third position then, the difference of votes scored by him and Congress’s Sivakumar, who claimed the second position, was just 3,400.

The BJP poll-managers feel that the situation this time is far more favourable for the party/ “Both the LDF and UDF have proved themselves to be submerged in corruption. The two fronts don’t have a slogan to put forward to the people. We are confident of emerging as a strong force in the thirteenth Assembly,” said a senior BJP leader.

Former president PK Krishnadas and State Yuva Morcha president VV Rajesh have also become active in campaigning in their respective constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram district – Kattakkada and Vattiyoorkavu. Rajesh says that he is planning to meet as many voters as possible in the first days.

However, the most confident battle of the BJP is being waged in Manjeswaram in the northernmost Kasaragod district, the one seat the BJP thinks where lotus is sure to bloom this time. K Surendran, known as the most eloquent and efficient young leader of the party in the State, is poised for a tough triangular fight there.

The BJP has been losing this seat by a whisker in the past several elections. In the 2006 Assembly election, BJP’s Narayana Bhatt had lost Manjeswaram to CPI(M)’s CH Kunhambu by 4,829 votes, a very meager margin considering the pro-Left wave that was sweeping through Kerala then.

In the 1996 Assembly election, Manjeswaram had come closer to electing a BJP candidate. BJP workers there still say that it was sheer lack of luck that defeated party candidate V Balakrishna Shetty then. The majority Muslim League’s Cherkalam Abdulla had managed to muster then over Shetty was just 2,292.

I would request all the leaders of Kerala BJP to bury all the differences and egos and work as a unit. It is very embarassing for me to counter the arguments of my friends that not a single seat has won by BJP so far in Assembly or Parliament but the groupism and difference between the leaders are paramount. We should stop all sorts of diifferenes and help each other to attain the goal. Another important matter is the right campainging. We should open the double standards of both Congress and CPM that they talk one in Kerala and do the other in Delhi. They are fooling the public and it is BJP's ability to expose them. Suggest put up ad in Newspapers and visual medium telling the people this is a golden opportunity to take revenge upon the goondaism of CPM and Corrupt and Minority appeasing of Congress. We can concentrate more of the places where Muslim league and Kerala Congress candidates are nominated and the ordinery congress voters are forced to cast their votes upon them. Remember not to utter any derogatory word which will bring in Election commission or opponets critisism. Door to door campain will be the best bet. Suggest reach as much houses as possible. Educate the people that it is foolish to change the goverment every 5 years similar to changing goal posts in half time which will result in same things to happen without any change. They will be giving licence to UDF to loot every alternative 5 years who will continue to add more in the Jail and drain the public money. CPM on the other hand will continue to politicise recurting in jobs through back-door and increase their caders by giving jobs. More tragedy can expect in Sabarimala they will take over the control of all temples and give free entry to Madani type activities. we can soon expect more terror breeding in Kerala if both the fronts continue to rule alternatively.

Appoint a campaign cell to work out the strategy similar to Modi-Jaitely combine does for Gujarat. JAI HO BJP