BJP pitches for E Sreedharan as NDA's CM candidate in Kerala

E. Sreedharan
E. Sreedharan. Photo: IANS

Thiruvalla: BJP in Kerala on Thursday said it has requested the party's national leadership to declare "Metroman" E Sreedharan, who recently joined the party, as the NDA's chief ministerial candidate in Kerala in the coming assembly elections.

If the NDA, "under the leadership of "Metroman", gets an opportunity to rule the state, "we are confident we will be able to implement development works under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a ten-fold force in Kerala", state unit president K Surendran said.

Addressing a party meeting here, he highlighted the achievements of Sreedharan, including the completion of the reconstruction of Palarivattom flyover here in five months, much ahead of the stipulated time.

"He completed the project in five months without any corruption. That is why we requested Sreedharan and our party leadership that he should be projected as the (NDA's) chief minister candidate", he said at the meeting organised as part of the "Vijay Yatra" led by him.

This is for the first time, the party indicated that Sreedhran will be the NDA's chief ministerial candidate.

Earlier in the day, Sreedharan, wearing his trademark uniform of the DMRC, himself told the media at the Palarivattom flyover that Thursday will be his last working day and for the past 24 years he has been wearing the DMRC uniform.

When asked about his decision to contest the upcoming assembly elections on a BJP ticket, he said he is willing to contest from anywhere.

"My request is, since I now live at Ponnani (Malappuram district) I would like to contest in some place near that. My campaign would not be by meeting each and every voter, instead, I will 'reach' every voter with a message," added Sreedharan.

The 88-year old technocrat had also said the focus will be on developing infrastructure in a big way and bring the state out of the debt trap if the BJP wins the assembly polls to be held on April 6.

(With PTI inputs)

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.