THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP–Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) alliance has held its first round of talks on seat sharing and decided to form the Kerala chapter of NDA. BJP was represented by its state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, former president V. Muraleedharan and organisational general secretary K. R. Umakanthan while state president Tushar Vellappally, general secretaries T. V. Babu and Subhash Vasu, SNDP Pandalam union president Sinil Mundapally and youth movement secretary Dr Ratheesh Chengannur represented BDJS.
The two sets of leaders will be jointly conducting a press conference at Thiruvananthapuram Press Club on Wednesday. BDJS has demanded 64 seats to contest in the Assembly elections. BJP leaders are peeved with BDJS over their demand to have Kazhakoottam and Kozhikode North.
In fact, Mr Muraleedharan had started work in Kazhakoottam immediately after the civic polls. Similarly, BJP state vice-president K. P. Sreesan eyes a secure berth in Kozhikode North. Due to internal politics in Sreesan’s hometown of Beypore, he has been forced to have a safe seat.
The BJP core committee leaders comprising former presidents and general secretaries have already reserved their seats. A prominent BJP leader took a dig at BDJS saying instead of demanding 64 seats, it would have been better if they round off the number to 70.
“The maximum the BJP would give to BDJS would be 40 seats and not more than that. They don’t have credible faces, and if they are keen to show that they are contesting just for the sake of it, it will not help them in the long run,” said a BJP leader.
Though the BJP and BDJS leaders have claimed that a final decision on the seat sharing would be taken on Wednesday, BJP leaders feel that it will not happen so quickly.
