BJP cosying up to Christian leaders
Faltering tieup with SNDP makes party rethink
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-11-04 06:00 GMT
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP is cosying up to the Church in the state after reportedly landing in trouble with the SNDP-Yogam leadership. In a move to mend fences with the Christians, Mr H. Raja, BJP national general secretary in charge of Kerala, met bishop Jacob Manathodath of Palakkad diocese of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Palakkad on Tuesday to seek support for its candidates in the local body elections.
The meeting had the blessings of RSS state leadership anticipating victory in the Palakkad municipality. The RSS state leadership has named ‘Mission 35 Plus’ to wrest power from the 52 wards in the Palakkad municipality under the aegis of Mr K. Subhash, RSS pracharak, who has been making significant strides there for the last six months.
After holding talks with the bishop in the morning, Mr Raja told reporters there that he had sought his support for the party in the polls due on Thursday. During the 2005 local body elections, they had won 17 seats which dwindled to 15 seats in 2010.
“Our aim is to win a majority in Palakkad municipality. We hope to get 26 seats and the remaining will go to independents,” said the leader.
The present strength of the Palakkad municipality is Congress 19, BJP 15, CPM 8, League 4 and independents 4. Mr Subhash and Mr C. Krishnakumar, Palakkad district president, have categorised 13 wards as A-plus (sure seats), 10 as 'A' with 75 percent chance, and the remaining as ‘B’ with 50 percent chance.
Though Christians form only eight percent of the population, the RSS and BJP did not want to take chances. BJP national leader Alphons Kannanthanam had last week met Mar Remigiose Inchananiyil, bishop of Thamarassery.
Meanwhile, state BJP president V. Muraleedharan has reportedly called up SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan and enquired about the reason for his outburst against the party leadership not doing its homework on the alliance.
Sensing a debacle in most districts, both the leaderships are on damage-control mode. DC had reported Mr Natesan's comments about the BJP on Tuesday.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.