BJP to announce candidate list in two days, inducts leaders from other fronts

The BJP will announce its candidate list for the upcoming elections within the next two days, state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. The list will include candidates of the BJP as well as its allies in the NDA. Voting for the 140 constituencies in Kerala will be held on April 9, with the counting of votes scheduled for May 4. The last date for submitting nominations is March 23.

“We will complete the shortlisting process and announce the candidates for the BJP and other NDA allies in the next two days,” Chandrasekhar told reporters.

Several leaders from other political parties formally joined the BJP at the event. Among them were Thodiyoor Ramachandran, former KPCC secretary and UDF Karunagappally mandalam chairman from Kollam; Dr Pratap Kumar, managing director of Meditrina Hospitals; Prof Devaprasad Johnson of the NCP; and Rasheed, a former CPM councillor from Vizhinjam and an area committee member.

Chandrasekhar said the NDA would campaign with a vision of building a “Viksit Kerala” and expressed confidence that the alliance could bring about a change in governance in the state. The BJP would focus on a positive campaign, he said, alleging that both the LDF and the UDF would attempt to distract voters with other issues. He also claimed that people in the state were frustrated with what he described as the misgovernance of both the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF.

“It is time for change. It is time to create a new Kerala. The NDA’s slogan is that the unchanged will be changed and Kerala will develop,” he said.

He added that leaders and workers of the NDA would visit households across the state in the coming days to present their development plans to the public.

The BJP’s social media campaign in Kerala is centred on portraying the LDF and the UDF as indistinguishable political fronts and urging voters to opt for a change through the NDA. Using the slogan “Enough… let change begin,” the campaign argues that decades of alternating rule by the two alliances have failed to address people’s basic problems. The BJP claims that both fronts are more focused on controversies and vote-bank politics than on development, and portrays itself as the only party offering a clear development vision and a “politics of performance.” The messaging also accuses the LDF and the UDF of appeasing extremist groups for electoral gains, describing their alleged links with such organisations as a betrayal of the people. Overall, the campaign line stresses that “UDF and LDF are not two, but one,” while promising that an NDA victory would bring change and accelerate Kerala’s development.