Targeting 12 LS seats from Kerala, BJP mulls bringing Kummanam in team Modi

The BJP is weighing all options to strengthen its base in Kerala and to achieve a seemingly impossible target of winning more than half of the total Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 general elections. In a bid to boost its prospects, the saffron party is mulling the induction of state party president Kummanam Rajashekharan into the Narendra Modi ministry, reports quoting party sources said. 

As Rajashekharan is likely to be inducted into the Union Ministry, former state party president V Muraleedharan may get a top post in the party central leadership, Malayala Manorama reports. He is one of the most probable candidates to be  inducted into the Modi team which is likely be reshuffled after the upcoming elections into five states including UP and Punjab. 

After the successful national council meeting convened at Kozhikode in last September, party president Amit Shah exuded confidence that his party would come to power in Kerala in five years. He had also set a target of 12 out of the total of 20 LS seats in Kerala. 

 The party had also chalked out a 31-point plan for the party in the state. The BJP had struck an alliance with small players in Kerala, including newly formed Bharat Dharma Jana Sena which paid off to some extent. BJP won its first ever seat in the State Assembly in the elections held in May last year and got over 15% vote share. The party had also started a project to woo minority communities including the Christians and Muslims in the state. 

• BJP Kerala
• BJP
• Kummanam Rajashekharan
• Narendra Modi ministry
• Team Modi
• Amit Shah
• BJP national council