BJP to focus on LS elections with scant space for intra-party blame games or disputes


Thiruvananthapuram

The approaching drumbeats of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections seemed louder at the State leadership conclave of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The meeting reportedly focussed on the national elections with no space for any inner-party blame game or fratricidal disputes.

It dwelled on harnessing caste and age demographics, regional interests, emotive issues such as the acquisition of land for K-Rail project, and Prime Minister Modi’s security and development agenda to the BJP’s advantage in Kerala.

The meeting also sought to squeeze political advantage out of the CPI(M)‘s perceived outreach to the IUML to rally Muslim votes against the BJP.

Apparently playing to the Hindu and Christian community’s fear of “rising Islamism”, with an unmistakable eye on the national elections, BJP state president K. Surendran portrayed the CPI(M)‘s “legitimisation” of the IUML as a challenge to the majority community.

Mr. Surendran’s line coalesced with the party’s earlier pro-Church position on the “Love Jihad” and “Narcotic Jihad” scare.

Mr. Surendran said the IUML’s resistance to extending the maintenance right to divorce Muslim women in the Shah Bano case revealed the “communal outfit’s” inherent fundamentalist tilt.

The BJP leadership also imputed a rift in the CPI over the IUML’s potential entry into the LDF and sought to wring propaganda advantage out of the alleged dispute.

The meeting also decided to place UDF and LDF on the same political scale so the BJP could convincingly project itself as the sole and credible Opposition in the State.

The meeting also proposed a door-to-door campaign highlighting “corruption and nepotism” in State-funded universities.

It resolved to muster public opinion against the Bill seeking to remove the Governor as Chancellor solely to negate Raj Bhavan’s “hindering” role as a univerrsity ombudsman.

The meeting also stressed the need for constant intervention of BJP leaders with a national profile in Kerala affairs.

The BJP would continue to spotlight corruption scandals dogging the government, including CPI(M) ‘s outsize say in government appointments, to turn public opinion against the LDF.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, former Union Minister O. Rajagopal, and State general secretaries M. T. Ramesh, George Kurian, and P. Sudheer, attended the meeting.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *