Congress will be irrelevant in Kerala after LS polls…no one sees Rahul becoming PM: Kerala BJP chief

The BJP, which has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala but views the state as an important avenue in its pursuit of achieving its target of 370 seats in the coming polls, has fielded its state president K Surendran from Wayanad. He is facing a triangular fight in the seat against sitting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and senior CPI leader Annie Raja. In an interview with The Indian Express, he speaks about the challenges that the party faces, its chances in the state, the Modi factor and other issues. Excerpts:

The people of Kerala see the BJP as a strong contestant in this election. We have transformed the fight in most constituencies into a triangular one, while last time, the fight was bipolar in most seats.

The Modi factor is significant as his acceptance in the state has gone up manifold. He has won people’s hearts. His political rivals too admit that he will return to power. In the run-up to the 2019 elections, many people had created doubts regarding the NDA’s return to power. Now, they do not see any reason to keep the BJP at bay.

There is a pro-Modi wave in Kerala and the BJP has fielded candidates who can cash in on the trend. We have (Union minister of state) Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram, where he has managed to crack the impression created by sitting MP Shashi Tharoor that he was unbeatable.

In Attingal, where the CPI(M) has a strong presence, we are putting up a good fight by fielding Union minister V Muraleedharan. We are a formidable force against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) in all the constituencies.

Polarisation of votes between the LDF and UDF is a phenomenon in Kerala, both fronts have a strong organisational structure in the state. But look at the 2019