A day after projecting Delhi Metro Rail Corporation principal adviser E. Sreedharan as the party’s Chief Minister candidate for the Assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party State president K. Surendran on Friday backtracked on his statement and said that he had only stated the people’s wish.
“The people of Kerala surely want to have a government led by personalities like Mr. Sreedharan which will take the State out of this unending cycle of corruption and stagnation. A final decision on this, however, has to come from the national leadership of the party,” said Mr. Surendran, during a press briefing at Konni in the morning. On the occasion, he also accused the media of taking his statement out of context and triggering a controversy over it.
While addressing party supporters during his Vijay Yatra at Thiruvalla the other day, Mr. Surendran had stated that the party decided to make Mr. Sreedharan its Chief Minister candidate so as to take the State out of its current phase of stagnation. He further stated that the leadership of Mr. Sreedharan, who had been instrumental in implementing key projects such as the Kochi metro rail and the Palarivattom flyover, would change the face of Kerala forever.
Central leadership irked
The statement, however, seems to have irked the party Central leadership as the party has not addressed the same issue in other poll-bound States. Later, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan came up with a clarification that the BJP State president was just stating the people’s wish.
“He was only referring to some issues in Kerala where he mentioned that people would like to see a person like Mr. Sreedharan as the Chief Minister,” Mr. Muraleedharan told the media.
