Kerala BJP chief clarifies on CM candidate remark

Pathanamthitta, Mar 05 (PTI):
Kerala BJP chief K Surendran on Friday clarified he had not made any announcement on the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the coming assembly elections in the state and said what he expressed was that the people and party workers wanted E Sreedharan to “lead” them.
He said the BJP’s central leadership alone will decide on the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
“What I said was the people of Kerala and the BJP workers want a leader like E Sreedharan to lead them.
There is no doubt in it. Kerala and its people want the leadership of Sreedharan.”
“I am the party chief in Kerala. I know what I said. I never made any announcement other than saying that the people of Kerala want the leadership of Sreedharan,” Surendran said at Pathanamthitta.
His comments came a day after Union Minister V Muraleedharan tweeted that the ‘Metroman’ will be the CM candidate only to retract later saying the party had not made any such announcement.
Surendran also blamed the media in the state for “wrongly interpreting” what he had said and claimed that the CPI(M) and the Congress were jittery after Sreedharan joined the party.
Earlier on Thursday, Surendran had said that if the NDA “under the leadership of the ‘Metroman’, gets an opportunity to rule the state, we are confident we will be able to implement development works under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a ten-fold force in Kerala.”
Addressing a party meeting in Thiruvalla, he highlighted the achievements of Sreedharan, including completing the reconstruction of the Palarivattom flyover here in five months, much ahead of the stipulated time.
“He completed the project in five months without any corruption. That is why we requested Sreedharan and our party leadership that he should be projected as the (NDA’s) Chief Minister candidate,” he had said.
This was the first time the party indicated that Sreedhran will be the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate.