BJP gears up for civic elections in Kerala
The local body elections will be followed by the assembly elections in the southern state next year.
Having set a target of winning at least 250 local bodies, the BJP has revamped its Kerala unit by appointing 16 senior leaders as in-charges of the organisational districts and 1,400 leaders as panchayat and municipal cluster in-charges.
'Preparations for the local body polls are in full swing. After the new state president (Rajeev Chandrashekhar) was appointed in March, the party carried out a detailed study of the gram panchayats, all the 152 block panchayats, six corporations and the district panchayats. This has helped us assess the ground situation and set our targets and work out how many representatives will be contesting the local body polls,' a person aware of the details said.
In the previous polls, the BJP had won 22 gram panchayats, two corporations and two municipalities in 2020, when the elections to the 1,199 local bodies were held in three phases. The party, however, drew a blank in the 140-member assembly polls a year later.
The person cited above said the state unit will soon begin an electoral training camp for karyakartas (workers) across one lakh (100,000) wards in Kerala through 'Nisha Shilpashala' camps that will be held at 1,400 locations over two weeks. 'Once the training is complete, the workers will begin the task of preparing the booth-level voters lists,' the person said.
With an eye on expanding its footprint in the southern state — where it had managed to win one Lok Sabha seat (out of 20) in the previous general elections last year — the BJP has carried out a membership drive and ensured there is representation of different castes and faiths.
'As soon as the new state president's term began, we started work on strengthening booth committees. These committees were formed in just 2,100 of over 25,000 booths, with fewer than 20,000 booth karyakartas (workers). A special campaign was launched in the first week of May to raise this number to over 8,500 booth committees and nearly 90,000 karyakartas,' the person cited above said.
In April, the party launched the 'Vikasita Keralam (developed Kerala)' campaign to highlight the 'administrative lapses' of the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan led-LDF government, alleging it led to 'economic slowdown' in the state.
'As part of the Vikasita Keralam collective effort, ward-level teams were formed at the panchayat and municipal levels. Each team had five members, including at least one woman and one from the SC community. As a result, one lakh (100,000) karyakartas—forming the Vikasita Keralam ward teams are ready to hit the ground,' the person said.
Booth workers have been identified in all 30 districts in the southern state and 630 office bearers have already been appointed. 'The party has been careful to include representatives from across castes and given space to women as well. Of the 630 office bearers, about 200 are women, 225 from backward communities, 75 from SC/ST communities, 30 are Christians, and over 70% are youth,' the person said.
The party has planned to target the Vijayan government over its alleged failure to attract investments leading to high unemployment and inflation among the states.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for 2023-24, Kerala has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in India, at 29.9% for the 15-29 age group.
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