(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) BJP struggling to find foothold in state during 2016 polls googletag.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah arrived in Kerala on Sunday with a mission to end the party’s electoral drought in the southern Indian state.
Considered as the key architect of the landslide victory the party secured in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh Shah is trying to help the party open its account in the state assembly during the next elections in 2016 by expanding its support base during the local body elections scheduled to be held next year.
He will be discussing a strategy with state office bearers of the party here on Monday morning on increasing seats in the local bodies. Shah who is visiting Kerala first time after taking over as the party chief will galvanise the party rank and file to face the poll at the meeting of the grassroots level workers to be held in the afternoon.
Unlike in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections the BJP has been winning seats in the local bodies but not power. Though the party won nine corporation wards and 79 municipal wards it could not get power in any urban bodies in the 2010 elections.
Similarly the party also drew a blank in district and block panchayats. It had won one district pnachayat and seven block panchayat wards in the last elections. The party that won 384 village panchayat wards could get power only in four villages. Party spokesman V V Rajesh said that the meeting would chalk out plans to win power in local bodies including corporations. The party thinks it can easily win power in the Trivandrum Corporation if it is able to retain the majority party nominee O Rajgopal got in the Lok Sabha elections. The party veteran had secured clear majority in 62 of the 100 wards in the city corporation.
Shah has definite plans to improve the showing in Kerala. He has directed the state unit to concentrate on party strongholds instead of wasting resources on fighting elections where it cannot win.
Accordingly theBharatiya Janata Party is planning to focus on five corporations seven municipalities and 60 village panchayats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party state leadership is also trying to adapt the strategy of luring Communists into the party experimented by Shah in West Bengal a Communist bastion. They are planning to attract middle level Communist leaders into the party by offering them tickets in the local body elections.
The BJP has been claiming steady flow of comrades into the party in the wake of the spectacular victory the party scored in the Lok Sabha elections. Bharatiya Janata Party Kannur district president K Ranjith said many BJP workers who left the party to join the CPM before the Lok Sabha polls had also started returning to the party fold.
However CPM Kannur secretary P Jayarajan said that he was not aware of anybody switching over to the BJP camp. He alleged that it was part of a false propaganda by the party to expand its base. Jayarajan said this will not succeed in Kannur which is the CPM cradle.
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