JOIN USAiming for 2024, BJP uses Centre’s ‘development initiatives’ to renew focus in Kerala
Despite a fall in its vote share in the 2021 Kerala assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party seems to still have hope to win over the state.
Senior party leaders, and union ministers, have been frequenting Kerala more often, and highlighting the Centre’s development initiatives in the state, setting the tone for the campaign for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Most recently, BJP national president J P Nadda, and senior leader Prakash Javadekar, who is now the Kerala state in-charge, were in Kerala on Sunday and Monday. Between them, they highlighted various development programmes by the Centre—such as the metro rail, national highway development and assistance to farmers.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders in the state campaigned against the corruption allegations faced by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala.
Nadda, who interacted with booth-level party workers on Monday, urged them to talk to common people, at the grassroot level, about Narendra Modi government’s development initiatives for Kerala, as well as expose the corruption and lawlessness in the state.
BJP sources said that the party was not at all upset over the two per cent decline in NDA’s vote share in Kerala in the 2021 assembly polls. The party is said to be now focusing on the development agenda, rather than communal and religious issues, like it did with the women’s entry to Sabarimala Ayyappa temple issue.
The decision to give the charge of Kerala to senior leader Prakash Javadekar also conveyed that the party was still serious about Kerala.
With top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi likely to contest in the Lok Sabha from Wayanad again, the BJP has been focusing on the tribal-dominated high range district; Union minister Smriti Irani visited the district and interacted with the tribal community.
This even triggered speculation that Irani might contest against Gandhi in Wayanad, like she did in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi constituency.
According to sources in the party, the BJP has identified six Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala where the party might have chances of winning. Union Ministers were reportedly given responsibility of each constituency with the mission of reaching out to the people, showcasing the Centre’s contribution to the state’s development.
Case in point was the visit by external affairs minister S Jaishankar to Thiruvananthapuram a few months ago, during which he praised the Centre-sponsored development projects such as national highway by-pass work in the district. The visit had sparked rumours that Jaishankar might take on Congress’s Shashi Tharoor—who is a three-time member of Parliament from the constituency—in Thiruvananthapuram for the Lok Sabha.