Former judge, IPS officer join BJP in Kerala; BJP leader calls on church head

The BJP in Kerala continues to woo more and more high profile persons to its camp with the latest being a former judge of Kerala High Court, Justice P N Ravindran, and a former additional Director-General of Kerala Police, Venugopal K Nair, joining the party on Sunday.

Another former judge of Kerala High Court, Justice V Chitambaresh, is also expected to join the party soon.

Meanwhile, BJP state president K Surendran called on Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal, George Alencherry, on Monday. Surendran said that it was just a private meeting even as it was considered an attempt to woo Christian vote banks. Earlier heads of prominent churches in Kerala had even called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister assured favourable consideration of their various plights.

Recently technocrat E Sreedhran, popularly known as 'Metro Man', and a retired director general of police Jacob Thomas had joined BJP. All of them are also likely to contest in the coming Assembly elections.

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Justice Ravindran, who retried from service in 2018, and Venugopal K Nair, who retired from service in 2012, were inducted into the party by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a public ceremony at Thrippunithura in Kochi in connection with reception to 'Vijaya Yatra' (victory march) led by party state president K Surendran.

Party sources said that Justice Chitambaresh was also expected to formally join the BJP on Sunday but he was out of town.

Justice Chitambaresh, who retried in 2019, had earlier courted a controversy over his statement that Brahmins should always be at the helm of affairs and there should be deliberation whether reservation should be on the basis of community and caste alone.

The state BJP leadership had already announced that many high profile persons would soon join the party in Kerala.

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The saffron party, which only has one seat in the Kerala Assembly is pinning high hopes in around 40 constituencies this time.

Surendran said that the party would require only 35 to 40 seats in the 140-member Kerala Assembly to form a government in Kerala, which is an indirect hint that the party would try to woo MLAs from other parties as they did in many other states. Already many workers and local leaders for various political parties, including the ruling CPM, have joined the BJP.