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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  BJP’s new Kerala headquarters has a room for a future chief minister
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BJP’s new Kerala headquarters has a room for a future chief minister

Nothing surprising there, except that in the 140-seat Kerala assembly, BJP currently has just one seat, but it's hopeful of having an occupant for the room one day

BJP president Amit Shah has advised the Kerala leadership to win the hearts and votes of minorities by the 2019 general election. File photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
BJP president Amit Shah has advised the Kerala leadership to win the hearts and votes of minorities by the 2019 general election. File photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Bengaluru: Call it commitment or the height of ambition. The upcoming Kerala headquarters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reportedly has a room for a future chief minister from the party.

Nothing surprising there, except that in the 140-seat assembly, the party currently has just one seat. O. Rajagopal is a BJP MLA from the Nemom constituency.

Reflecting the party’s ambition to form the government in the state some day, it has allocated an office in the new building under construction for a future CM, regional newspaper Malayala Manorama reported on Wednesday. State BJP leader K. Surendran confirmed the news to Mint.

“We are sure of making the government in Kerala one day. The first floor in the new headquarters will have a room for state president and legislative party leader. The room for the legislative party leader will be for the future CM," Surendran said over the phone.

Political parties typically set aside a room for their legislative party leader at their headquarters. But they usually have more numbers than the BJP in Kerala.

The party’s state president Kummanam Rajasekharan could not be reached on phone for an immediate comment.

Kerala is crucial for BJP in its efforts to become a truly national party. It is one of the few states where the BJP has never won a parliamentary seat. It had not won an assembly seat either until the last election in 2016, where it won exactly one seat. However, it managed to secure a vote share of 16% in the assembly elections, its highest so far.

Revamping the simple state headquarters in capital city Thiruvananthapuram to a seven-storey structure is part of the efforts to show that growth, as per the BJP.

BJP president Amit Shah attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new headquarters last week, and asked the state unit to focus more on winning seats than obsessing over vote share.

He advised the state leadership to win the hearts and votes of minorities by the 2019 general election, a hard task considering the their decades-long support to the two major fronts led by the ruling communists and opposition Congress, Mint reported on 4 June.

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Published: 14 Jun 2017, 08:02 PM IST
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