THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Betting heavily on the upcoming assembly elections in Kerala, the BJP central leadership has deployed 160 member contingent of leaders from other states to take charge of campaign and organisational activities in the party contesting constituencies.
The team is led by one of the party's key poll strategists and national general secretary, Vinod Tawde, who is appointed as the leader in charge of the election. The contingent includes serving ministers, MPs, MLAs and senior leaders who were assigned various responsibilities.
At a time, both the LDF and main opposition UDF are yet to begin their election preparations in full swing, the team had reached Kerala three weeks ago, and each leader has been deputed with charges of specific constituencies and overall charge of districts.
“While some leaders were assigned with the charge of certain constituencies, others are in charge of districts overseeing the ground level work and coordinating the pre-campaign activities,” said a BJP leader.
Though the state leadership maintains that there is nothing important in the appointment of Tawde, as other state leaders had been appointed in the earlier election, party sources say his appointment should be viewed in the backdrop of his track record in managing elections. In Bihar and Haryana assembly elections, where had been given charge, BJP- NDA secured comfortable victories.
Tawde has been allotted space in the NDA Election Management Committee office on the lower floor of Maraji Bhavan, BJP’s state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. He will work along with Shoba Karandlaje, another leader assigned charge of the state.
Tawde will oversee the party's campaign strategy, election fund distribution among other responsibilities. Apart from assigning leaders charge of assembly constituencies, the team has also entrusted them with the responsibility of overseeing the election management of 14 districts.
Selected workers from Kerala have also been recruited as full-time staff with remuneration to assist them. Siddharth Shirole, one such MLA from Pune's Shivajinagar, who has been assigned the charge of Ambalappuzha constituency has informed his taking charge through social media.
The BJP leadership has set its sights on 15 constituencies such as Manjeshwaram, Palakkad, Nemom, Kazhakootam, which it considers winnable seats to open its account in the state assembly. The party is confident of winning at least five seats.
The leadership has also identified 35 constituencies as ‘A- class ‘ seats where it believes it has strong prospects. These include Nemom, Vattiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Kazhakootam, Attingal, Chirayinkeezhu, Kattakada, Varkala, Chathannoor, Aranmula, Chengannur, Aroor, Kunnamangalam, Thrissur, Nattika, Palakkad.
In Aranmula, though the name of veteran leader Kummanam Rajasekharan was being considered, the central leadership learned to have reservations. Former state president K Surendran is likely to contest from Manjeshwaram at the behest of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In addition, 20 more assembly constituencies have been classified with ‘A – class status’ including Karunagappally and Kayamkulam. “Greater importance will be given in these 55 constituencies. The A- class status constituencies are where the party has secured more than 30,000 votes in the parliament election,” a BJP leader said.