THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The poll preparations of the BJP in the state will get a boost with the arrival of national president Amit Shah in Palakkad on Friday.
He will reach Palakkad from Madurai by helicopter at 3.30 p.m. and attend a public meeting of 10,000 Sakthi Kendra in-charges of two Lok Sabha constituencies--Alathur and Palakkad-- at Fort Grounds at 5 p.m.
He will also address a meeting of Lok Sabha in-charges and conveners of the state in the Town Hall at 4 p.m. and return to Coimbatore late in the evening.
BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai has called a meeting of the office-bearers at 10.30 a.m. The central leadership was ill at ease with Mr Pillai for not discussing the candidates’ list in party forums. National general secretary in-charge of the state, P. Muralidhar Rao, had given a report against the state leadership on the raging factionalism.
However, a former BJP state president rubbished the reports and said the meeting was between Mr Muralidhar Rao and BDJS president Tushar Vellap-ally over seat-sharing.
“It is not known whether or not Tushar will contest from Thrissur. Shah is coming to the state as per the earlier plans. He will be here to steer the page in-charges on the various central schemes to be taken up during their door-to-door campaign, as there are close to 26 lakh beneficiaries in the state,” he said.
The two new prabha-ris/election in-charges of Kerala, Y. Satya Kumar, BJP national secretary from Andhra Pradesh, and Nirmal Surana, former MLA from Karnataka, appointed by Mr Amit Shah will take over their roles on Thursday. Both the prabharis will attend the BJP district committee meetings in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram on the election preparations. The four state general secretaries, Sobha Surendran, M. T. Ramesh, K. Suren-dran and A. N. Radhakrishnan will kick off regional-level yatras in the first week of March.
