: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Monday unveiled a blueprint to strengthen the party in Kerala to enable it to open its account in the next elections to the local bodies, Assembly, and Parliament.
The membership drive will be kicked off on November 1. BJP workers should enrol new members from all sections of society, Mr. Shah said while unveiling the blueprint at á BJP workers’ convention organised near Thiruvallam here to coincide with his maiden two-day visit to the State.
“The workers should strengthen the BJP. We should contest the elections to win,” Mr. Shah reminded the party functionaries. Stating that the BJP would be strengthened in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu during his tenure, Mr. Shah called upon BJP workers to reach out to the people, especially youth, so that the party can contest and win the polls.
The Congress needs to be wiped out from the State. It should begin with the elections to the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation. Regretting that there was no BJP MP from the State now, Mr. Shah said the Kerala unit of the party would mark its presence in the 2019 polls to the Lok Sabha.
The BJP president lashed out at the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and accused them of taking the State backwards. “They are both sides of the same coin and are playing vote bank politics,” he said.
He alleged that the rival fronts were pursuing an appeasement policy.
The BJP president said the Narendra Modi government had made several achievements in the short period in reviving the economy, foreign relations, adopting a tough stand against Pakistan and black money, and in reducing the price of diesel.
A one-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to RSS district-level leader in Kannur Elanthottil Manoj who was hacked to death early Monday. BJP State president V. Muraleedharan, senior leader O. Rajgopal, former party presidents, and functionaries of party and feeder organisations were present.
