Thrissur, Feb 7 (IANS) On his first visit to Kerala after taking charge as BJP national president, Nitin Nabin appears to have struck a chord with the state party leadership, packing symbolism and political messaging into a hectic two-day schedule that culminated in what was effectively the launch of the party’s Assembly election campaign.

On Saturday, the second day of his visit, Nabin travelled to Kalady, the birthplace of the influential ninth-century philosopher Adi Shankara, where he offered prayers at the temple.

From there, the BJP chief moved swiftly into overt campaign mode.

At Ollurkkara in Thrissur district, he painted a lotus, the party’s election symbol, on the wall of polling booth number 163.

Party leaders described the gesture as deliberate and symbolic, signalling the formal commencement of the BJP’s ground-level campaign in Kerala.

Thrissur, where the party has been attempting to expand its electoral footprint, was carefully chosen to underline that intent.

In 2024, Thrissur gave a shocking win to the film star-turned politician, Suresh Gopi, who became the first Lok Sabha winner in Kerala from the BJP.

Nabin’s Kerala visit has also been marked by intense organisational engagement.

On Friday, he chaired a closed-door meeting of the BJP state core committee at Kochi, attended by state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and leaders of NDA constituent parties.

Sources said the new national president conveyed a clear message: the party must convert its growing vote share into Assembly seats.

At the meeting, Nabin reportedly issued firm instructions to focus on 30 Assembly constituencies where the BJP had secured over 30 per cent vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections.

He underlined that consolidating around 10 per cent of swing voters, those not aligned with either the LDF or the UDF, could decisively tilt the outcome in these seats.

The BJP plans to foreground the Sabarimala gold theft case and what it projects as the development record of the Narendra Modi government as its principal campaign planks.

Nabin accused both the LDF and the UDF of working in tandem to undermine Sabarimala and Sanatan Dharma, asserting that voters would hold both fronts accountable.

He also made it clear that factionalism within the Kerala unit would not be tolerated and warned that the party would undertake a comprehensive organisational overhaul if it failed to emerge as a decisive force after the elections.

With a 90-day intensive campaign roadmap, early finalisation of candidates, and visible mobilisation on the ground, the BJP leadership believes the Kerala campaign has now formally begun—signalled, fittingly, by a lotus painted on a wall.

–IANS

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