THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah's Kerala visit, the party's state unit has stepped up its election push by fast-tracking the candidate shortlisting exercise and revamping party committees down to the booth level.
It is reliably learnt that BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar is set to submit an initial list of key candidates of the party by the end of this week.
"The state BJP will seek an early, informal clearance from the central parliamentary board for fielding a handful of its proven performers in the party's strongholds, enabling them to step up groundwork in their respective constituencies," said a source.
A meeting of a smaller team of senior leaders from among the core group, comprising general secretaries and past presidents, is likely to be convened before submission of the list.
According to party insiders, Shah had suggested that senior leaders in the state core group meet at least once every three days in the run-up to the election to fine-tune poll strategy.
The BJP also plans to shortlist its candidates in at least 50% of the seats it would contest by the end of January. According to sources, the lists to be submitted before the central leadership later this month will focus on assembly segments where the party has consistently polled 30,000 - 35,000 votes in the previous elections.
Organisationally, the party is now engaged in restructuring its booth committees in the wake of the rationalisation of polling stations as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The number of polling booths in the state had risen from 25,468 to 30,505 after the poll panel decided to restrict the number of voters per polling station to a maximum of 1,200.
"In the wake of over 5,000 new polling stations being added, the existing booth committees will be restructured. The central leadership had also directed that the party should facilitate the inclusion of the maximum number of voters who have been erroneously left out of the draft voters list," said a senior leader.