THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP state unit will unleash a two-week-long mega campaign from August 1 as part of efforts to regain the confidence of party workers and general public in the wake of the medical college scam which led to the ouster of a party leader on graft charges.
Over 6,000 BJP leaders right from panchayat to state-level will move out of their home district/ constituency to work at the grassroots.
They will engage in door-to-door campaign and try to convince voters of the LDF and UDF’s alleged plans to stonewall the BJP’s march in Kerala.
However, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan while denying the mass contact programme is a damage control exercise said it had been planned during party national chief Amit Shah’s visit to the state earlier. “The campaign has nothing to do with the current developments. The campaign was planned during the visit of BJP president Amit Shah,” he said.
Kummanam said he will be visiting Bathery in Wayanad on August 1 and attend booth-level meetings during the three-day stay. “We will tell workers and party sympathisers about the larger conspiracy hatched by the LDF and the UDF jointly with a section of the media to dent the party’s image on the medical college issue.
“Let the LDF and the UDF continue with their smear campaign against us. But we will directly interact with the people. We will be open to questions. We have nothing to hide from the people,” he said.
Since the BJP leaders from panchayat to state- level will be attending the fortnight-long mass contact programme people will get ample time to raise issues concerning their locality. Likewise, the organisation will get an opportunity to understand problems in detail and take it up with the powers be. The campaign will conclude on August 15.
‘L25 L was consultancy fee’
T’Puram: R S Vinod, former convener of BJP cooperative cell, on Saturday deposed before the Vigilance he had collected I25 lakh from R Shaji - the owner of a Varkala-based private medical college (MC) - as consultancy fee and not as bribe. Vinod also said he had handed over the money to Sathish Nair, who was introduced to him by Rajesh - a common friend - in New Delhi. He said did not derive any personal benefit from the transaction.