The BJP national president Amit Shah has said that the national leadership will work with the state unit to make a stronger party in Kerala.

Addressing the state executive meeting of the party, he exhorted party workers to take up the challenge of familiarising the general public with Central Government schemes.

CPI(M) VIOLENCE

Party workers have had to contend with attacks by CPI(M) activists under the Left Front regime. This cannot be accepted, Shah said. The BJP is against violence of all forms.

The national leadership would like to congratulate workers here for the splendid performance in the last assembly elections. This should be the stepping stone for a complete victory in the 2021 assembly elections.

Shah is learnt to have already asked the state unit to reach out to the minorities, including the Christian community, and take them on board in the run-up to the next assembly elections.

Sources said Shah had delivered the same message to Kummanam Rajasekharan, state party president, when the latter had called on him New Delhi recently.

MINORITY OUTLOOK

There have been also reports that the party is cosying up to the largest Kerala Congress led by KM Mani, a former finance minister in the erstwhile Oommen Chandy-led government.

Mani is a disgruntled man after the unsavoury circumstances surrounding his exit as a minister and apparently has scores to settle with Chandy and the Congress party at large in Kerala.

Observers say Mani may like to ‘have a fresh look at things as they evolve’ and mull his options outside of the Congress-led United Democratic Front, of which his party is a prominent member.

Christians constitute a little more than 18 per cent of the state’s population, and is a crucial constituency to tap in so far as the BJP’s game plan for the 2021 elections is concerned.

MAJOR PROJECTS

Meanwhile, Kummanam Rajasekharan has said that the state BJP would support all moves of the state government to secure the state’s due from the Centre.

The party would go along with the government to ensure that long-pending projects such as highway development and LNG pipeline do not get delayed.

Rajasekharan was of the view that the government should take the lead for constructing a new dam at Mullaperiyar through an amicable settlement with Tamil Nadu.

He went on to say that the party would function as a constructive Opposition in the state assembly. The party has a lone and first member ever in the assembly in O Rajagopal.

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