BJP national president Amit Shah will be visiting Kerala for three days starting Friday to discuss ways to expand BJP’s political presence and vote base in a state for Assembly Elections 2017. Congress and CPM have been the major parties in the state to have shared the rule for decades. BJP has not been able to substantially increase its vote share to win assembly or Lok Sabha seats though it has been a serious contender since the 1990’s.
Shah’s visit to the state coincide with the recent incident with, Kannur Youth Congress activists public slaughtering a calf and subsequently being suspended from the party. Shah is likely to take advantage of this incident during his interactions with the media and public.
He will begin his tour from Kochi on June 2. He will hold a meeting with the Kerala BJP core group there, followed by discussions with NDA partnersBharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) and the Janadhipathya Rashtriya Sabha (JRS). Various organisational units of BJP will also meet Shah to discuss challenges the party faces in the state.
On Saturday and Sunday, he will be in Thiruvananthapuram and will hold a conference and raise issues ranging from attacks on BJP cadre to the calf killing. Shah will also visit a slum in Rajajinagar area of the capital city and meet booth level workers and residents. The sanitation and living conditions in this slum are bad, according to BJP leaders from the state.
During his tour Amit Shah will also meet the intellectuals, social and community leaders and influential people of Thiruvananthapuram inclined to BJP. He will meet with state BJP office-bearers and heads of 19 party departments to analyze the growth of the party since 2016 and suggest ways to increase the political presence in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
BJP had secured only 11% votes in Kerala in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and came second in Thiruvananthapuram, where Congress’s Shashi Tharoor won the seat by 14,000 votes. In the 2016 assembly polls the party increased its vote share to 15% and manages to win its first seat after forming alliance with several other parties and community groups. Now BJP is targeting to establish strong foothold in Kerala in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.