State BJP leader's Santosh, Ravi, Nalin to oversee polls in TN, Kerala

Bengaluru: The central BJP has appointed prominent state BJP leaders to oversee the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala which will go to polls on May 16.

Party national organizing joint secretary Santosh who is also organising secretary for the state BJP, former minister C.T. Ravi and Mangaluru MP Nalin Kumar Kateel have been placed in charge of the poll-bound states to oversee the elections.

Mr Santosh will be the overall in-charge for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Under his guidance, Mr Ravi will work in Tamil Nadu and Mr Kateel in Kerala.

The BJP units in both southern states heavily depend on the Karnataka unit which has a strong organizational network and where the first BJP government in the south was formed in 2008.

Recently Kerala BJP unit president Kummanam Rajashekharan had visited Karnataka to hold discussions with BJP leaders here regarding the election strategy in Kerala.

Mr C.T. Ravi has already done his groundwork in Tamil Nadu and had held a party organizational meeting to assess the socio-economic factors in the state.
Mr Kateel has done the groundwork in Kerala too.

Though the party does not garner hopes of coming to power in Tamil Nadu or Kerala, its aim is to win more seats and emerge as a strong opposition in both states.