After its candidate's nomination was rejected by the Election Commission (EC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it would back independent candidate and CPM rebel C.O.T Naseer in Thalassery.
The BJP state president K Surendran on Monday said the party will lend support to Naseer in the upcoming Kerala assembly polls.
However, no official statement has been released by the party yet.
Naseer had reportedly approached the BJP district leadership seeking their support for the April 6 polls. The party was then seeking the High Court's intervention to reinstate their candidate in the poll pray and therefore maintained that they will consider Naseer if all other options fail.
Naseer has, however, clarified that he will not be joining BJP.
The EC rejected BJP candidate Haridas’s nomination because it did not contain the mandatory signature of the BJP’s national president JP Nadda. The error came to light only during the official scrutiny on March 20.
Haridas’s attempt to get a legal remedy failed after the Kerala High Court refused to intervene in the issue. The court accepted the commission’s contention that the court cannot interfere in the election process once the poll dates are announced.
Apart from Haridas, the nomination papers of BJP candidate in Guruvayoor Nivedita and AIADMK candidate in Devikulam Dhanalakshmi Marimuthu were also rejected on March 20.
Nivedita’s affidavit, which was submitted along with the nomination, missed the mandatory signature of the party national president, while Marimuthu failed to submit the affidavit (Form 26)
AIADMK is BJP’s partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The nomination fiasco has dealt a severe blow to BJP, which has been waxing eloquent about its growth in Thalassery, a hotbed of political violence in the Kannur district.
This is because the party’s vote share has risen from 6,973 in 2011 to 22,125 in 2016. But it fell to 13,456 in the Lok Sabha election in 2019. In the local body election in December 2020, it won eight seats in Thalassery municipality - part of the assembly constituency - and finished ahead of the United Democratic Front (UDF), which won seven seats.
The Left Democratic Front is ruling the municipality with 36 seats. But the saffron outfit could not win even a single seat in Chockli, Eranholi, Kadirur and Panniyannur panchayats in the constituency. It secured only one seat in the New Mahe panchayat.
With the ouster of BJP candidate, the fight for Thalassery had turned out to be between CPM leader and incumbent MLA A N Shamseer of the LDF and Congress leader MP Aravindakshan of the United Democratic Front. But it seems, not for long.
Kerala goes to polls on April 6. The results will be announced on May 2.
