Thiruvananthapuram: The meeting of the BJP’s core committee held here on Wednesday deferred a decision on whether senior leader O. Rajagopal would contest in the Assembly elections. This was because Mr Rajagopal had asked the central leadership not to consider him for candidature this time.
The core committee also did not take a final decision on whether BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan would contest the elections. However, the chance of Mr Rajasekharan contesting the elections from Nemom is high.
P. P. Mukundan and K. Raman Pillai, who have returned to the party fold recently, have not been included the candidate list. The core committee has approved the candidature list for 100 seats. The meeting decided to field former BJP president V. Muraleedharan from Kazhakuttom. The other prominent contestants are P. K. Krishnadas (Kattakada), Sobha Surendran (Palakkad), M. T. Ramesh (Kozhikode North), K. Surendran (Manjeswaram), P. S. Sreedharan Pillai (Chenganoor) and C. K. Padmanabhan (Kunnamangalam).
The list now will be forwarded to central leadership. The central leadership will announce the final list of candidates. However, the confusion still continues over the 40 seats earmarked for BJDS.
Meanwhile, Vellapally Natesan said in New Delhi that BJDS will be part of the NDA. He said this after his meeting with the BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday. Mr Natesan said that neither he nor his son Thushar Vellapally will contest the Assembly polls.
