After ensuring some cross-voting in the upcoming presidential polls for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the northeast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is determined to strike an ideological blow to the Opposition by managing the same in Kerala.
According to senior office-bearers of the BJP, the party is in talks with at least six MLAs, Independents and members of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) for votes for Mr. Kovind.
This, they said, would also come as a morale booster for the party cadre in the State.
The defection of six Trinamool Congress MLAs to the NDA camp in Left-ruled Tripura has been one such boost.
Boosting presence
“A senior general secretary of the BJP is in touch with some UDF MLAs and the party will be much boosted in the State even if it gets one more vote than its current strength of one MLA,” said a senior leader involved in the process.
The target is for six UDF MLAs to vote for Mr. Kovind and some air miles are being clocked between Delhi and Kerala for these negotiations.
Incidentally, the UDF constituent Kerala Congress (Mani) has already declared support for the Opposition's candidate, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
The party’s chief K.M. Mani, however, did break with party ranks to attend the midnight launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime at the Central Hall of Parliament on June 30.
Lone BJP MLA
The BJP in Kerala has just one MLA, party veteran O. Rajagopal. In fact, Kerala and Puducherry MLAs supporting Mr. Kovind had to travel to Chennai to meet him when he was there to canvass support.
Mr. Kovind, meanwhile, will be travelling to Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in the next few days, according to senior party leaders.
“We are asking for support from everyone for Mr. Kovind and we are in touch with almost every MLA in the country,” said the leader.
