THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state BJP is planning to give the UDF and the LDF a run for their money by bringing its national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president Amit Shah, for the election campaign.
It will concentrate on the A+ seats where the BJP is contesting, which include Nemom (O. Rajagopal), Vattiyoorkavu (Kummanam Rajasekharan), Kattakada (P. K. Krishnadas), Kazhakoottam (V. Muraleedharan), Chengannur (P. S. Sreedharan Pillai), Aranmula (M. T. Ramesh), Palakkad (Sobha Surendran), Manjeshwaram (K. Surendran) and Manaloor (A. N. Radhakrishnan).
The national leadership wants to get at least 22 seats which would enable the BJP to bargain for power on a coalition platform. Amit Shah may camp in the state for 10 days. The state leadership wants other leaders like Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani also to campaign in the state.
The BJP candidates in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod are yet to be announced, which are also considered as A+. The state and RSS leaderships zeroed in on the A+ seats after the party managed to get more than 30,000 votes in the local bodies’ elections.
A prominent BJP leader told DC that Mr Modi would campaign in almost all the A+ seats. “The state BJP leadership has sent a proposal to the central leadership seeking the leaders’ time to campaign here. Mr Amit Shah is expected to camp in the state for a week or more in May. They will be coming only after the elections in Assam and West Bengal,” he said.
He added that the performance of the BJP in the state was being watched keenly. It is felt that it will be a hung Assembly and that the BJP role will be crucial. The central leadership is likely to announce the list of candidates on Thursday.
