Kerala BJP has to be strengthened: Amit Shah

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala has to be strengthened, party president Amit Shah said here Monday while addressing party members on the concluding day of his visit.

Shah arrived in the state capital Sunday night on his first visit to the state after becoming the BJP president.

"We are going to launch a nationwide membership drive Nov 1. The BJP workers in Kerala should go on a door-to-door campaign for this and expose the corrupt deals of the Left and the Congress-led UDF here," said Shah.

Kerala is the only state among the big ones in the country where the BJP is yet to open its account in the state assembly. The party also drew a blank in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the state which has 20 seats.

"You should contest the polls for winning and not just for the sake of contesting," said Shah who asked the state party leaders to work hard for the local body polls next year and the assembly polls, the year after that.

Shah told the party workers that a strategy has been prepared to ensure that the party rules the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation by winning 62 seats on its own at the next local body polls.

He also took pot shots at both the Left and the Congress for shielding jailed PDP leader Abdul Nasir Maudany, currently out on bail in Bangalore.

"Kerala chief minister went all the way from here to meet him to find out about his health. The Left also behaves in the same manner. The rival fronts here are playing the vote bank politics and in the process secularism gets compromised," said Shah.

Sources said Shah has told the senior party leaders that factionalism would be viewed seriously.