BJP hopeful of winning at least one LS seat from Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 16 (UNI) The BJP in Kerala is hopeful of sending at least one party representative to the Lok Sabha from the state in the coming elections.

BJP state president K Krishnadas has no doubt in it and claimed that after 27 years, the prospects of sending a member to the Lok Sabha from the state had brightened.

Since a large number of Kannadigas lived in Kasaragod, Manjeswaram and Uduma areas of Kerala, the possibility this time was very high to get a member elected from there as the neighbouring Karnataka was ruled by the BJP, he told UNI.

Mr Krishnadas said the party had chalked out various programmes to achieve the objective. It would organise ''desa raksha sadas'' from November 20 to December 10 in 1,110 centres in the state at which retired military officers would make the people aware of the spread of terrorism in the country.

Claiming that the situation was quite favourable for the party, he said in the recent bypolls to local bodies, the party had performed well and wrested one seat each from the Congress and the CPI(M) besides emerging second, pushing the ruling LDF and the Opposition UDF to the third place in many seats.

Stating that the party had also conducted ''house contact programme'' in the state, he claimed that it was highly successful as the party could collect more than Rs two crore, which, according to him, was a sign of wide acceptability of the party even among households.

Admitting that the party had lost a large number of votes in previous elections as its workers voted for the Congress to beat the CPI(M), he said now the people had realised that the policies of both the CPI(M) and the Congress were one and the same, which ultimately would help get votes for the BJP.

On the government providing scholarships to Muslim girls, he said the BJP was not opposed to giving scholarships, but it should be based on economic backwardness instead of on community basis.

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