A 16-member state election committee was constituted by the Kerala BJP on Wednesday for the April 6 Assembly polls, with 'Metroman' E Sreedharan, who joined the party recently, being one of the members. BJP state president K Surendran said in a statement that the committee was constituted with the permission of the party's national president JP Nadda.
Besides Surendran and Sreedharan, Union Minister V Muraleedharan, BJP National Vice President AP Abdullakutty, former BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, MLA O Rajagopal, and leaders CK Padmanabhan and PK Krishnadas are the prominent members of the committee.
While senior leader and state vice president Sobha Surendran's name was missing from the list, Mahila Morcha state president Nivedita Subrahmanian has found a place in the committee. Sobha had locked horns with the state BJP leadership and kept herself away from the party events for a year, in protest against being named the state vice-president when she had already served as the party's national executive member earlier. In the first week of February, she attended a party meeting in the presence of party president JP Nadda in Thrissur.
Two weeks later, she also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly to discuss issues in the party. However, it is assumed that some factional differences remain unsolved in the party.
The panel also has some special invitees, including the party's Kerala in-charge P Radhakrishnan and his deputy Sunil Kumar.
Sreedharan, the architect of the Delhi Metro, had formally joined the BJP on February 25 in the presence of Union Minister RK Singh at a function at Changaramkulam in Malappuram district when the 'Vijaya Yatra' led by Surendran reached there.
Later speaking to the media Sreedharan had said that he was open to the idea of being the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate, if the party wished so. "If they (BJP) want, certainly. To tell you very frankly, unless I am the chief minister these (priorities) cannot be achieved."
"My main idea is to bring BJP to power in Kerala. If BJP comes to power in Kerala, there will be three to four major areas we want to focus. One is infrastructure development in a big way and another is to bring industry to the state," he had added.
PTI inputs