Hundreds of Malayali BJP workers from Mumbai and various parts of Maharashtra will travel to Kerala to participate in campaigning for the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections.
The workers will join MLAs, MPs and senior BJP leaders from Maharashtra who are heading to Kerala as part of the election campaign, following instructions from Vinod Tawde, the BJP National General Secretary in charge of the elections.
As part of the preparations, a workers’ conference was held in Vasai on March 3. The meeting was led by Atul Kalsekar, BJP State Vice President and coordinator of expatriate workers, along with former minister Bhaigirikar, and MLAs Snehadube Pandit and Rajan Naik.
Prominent Malayali BJP workers from different parts of Maharashtra attended the meeting. Among those who addressed the gathering were former Deputy Commissioner V. Balachandran, KGK Kurup, Anoop Pushpamgadan from Nashik, Vinod Kumar, Suresh Nair, Santosh Nair (Ayyappa Samajam, Vasai East), G. Ramakrishnan from Kharghar, Jayaprakash Nair, Murali Pillai and several senior workers from the Vasai–Virar region.
During the meeting, a proposal was put forward to prepare a list of volunteers willing to stay and work in Kerala for up to fifteen days as part of the election campaign.
Maharashtra BJP Malayali wing convener K B Uttamkumar informed the gathering that lists of volunteers from Nashik and Pune have already been prepared and that workers from other regions are being identified and coordinated.
Addressing the meeting, Atul Kalsekar said that the BJP is aiming to win all 140 constituencies in Kerala in the upcoming election. Referring to the party’s earlier political growth in Gujarat after gaining control of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, he expressed confidence that the BJP’s growing presence in Kerala would lead to a historic political change in the state.
In his introductory remarks, Uttamkumar said that people in Kerala are increasingly looking for an alternative to the traditional Left and Right fronts that have ruled the state alternately. He added that Malayalis living outside Kerala also have an important role in bringing about this change.
He further stated that workers from different political parties in Kerala are joining the BJP, indicating growing public interest in the party. Uttamkumar expressed confidence that the BJP would make history in the Kerala Assembly elections under the leadership of Rajeev Chandrasekhar.