A crucial NDA meeting weighs roadmap for LS campaign in Kerala

NDA strategizes for Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, focusing on candidate selection and political messaging for electoral success.

Buoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s back-to-back electoral forays into Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convened here on Wednesday to chart out a strategy for scripting an emphatically good showing in the Lok Sabha polls.

The NDA hoped to bolster Mr. Modi’s vigorous electoral pitch by optimally factoring in caste, religion and age demographics in candidate selection and tailoring its political messaging suitably.

By some accounts, the BJP’s ally, BDJS, will contest four seats in Kerala. The BJP’s parliamentary board meeting, chaired by Mr. Modi, Union Minister for Home Amit Shah, and BJP national president J.P. Nadda, in New Delhi, on Thursday will likely finalise the candidates.

Mr. Modi’s national profile and his development, welfare and security agenda will likely push individual candidates into the penumbra of NDA’s electoral campaign.

Nevertheless, the meeting reportedly weighed fielding high-profile candidates, possibly a mix of political heavyweights and celebrities, in top priority constituencies where the NDA perceived a fighting chance.

The NDA also hoped to exploit politically the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] decision to field Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) dissident K S Hamsa in Ponnani on the party’s ticke .

NDA vice-chairperson P.K. Krishnadas, who chaired the meeting, said the move signalled a tacit understanding between the IUML and the CPI(M).