“Usually during polls in Kerala, no one talks about the BJP. But this time it’s going to be different. We will show the political pundits what a national party is,” says BJP state general secretary A N Radhakrishnan, exuding confidence.
He’s one of the three candidates the party has already announced in Kerala, the other two being veteran O Rajagopal in Thiruvananthapuram and firebrand leader K Surendran in Kasargod.
Party state president V Muraleedharan and national secretary P K Krishnandas—leaders of the two prominent factions—are staying away from the polls just to ensure that this time infighting should not come in the way of the BJP’s chances at winning.
The second list of candidates was finalised on Tuesday.
The Muvattupuzha Stunner
In 2004, Muvattupuzha, a predominantly Christian constituency, pulled a rabbit out of its hat by recording the BJP-led alliance’s first-ever significant victory in Kerala, dashing the hopes of the two leading fronts. Though the victory of P C Thomas of Indian Federal Democratic Party over the LDF candidate was by a whisker, the incumbent UDF finished a poor third. Thomas, a familiar face in the constituency by representing it five times from 1989 for UDF, defeated CPI(M)’s P M Ismail, by 529 votes. However, Thomas was disqualified for three years from contesting from May 19, 2010, on the ground that he used his religious background to woo voters during the polls. He was accused of distributing pamphlets among the Catholic Christian community. That was the last election for Muvattupuzha as it ceased to be a constituency in the delimitation process.