Lok Sabha polls: Turncoats figure in Kerala BJP’s probable list

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Even though the upcoming Lok Sabha polls is still a distant away, the Kerala BJP is leaving no stone unturned and is getting ready to hit the campaign trail.

The highlight of the probable list of BJP candidates who have been shortlisted include turncoats and surprisingly they hail from the minority communities and it has none other than Anil Antony, son of country’s longest serving Defence Minister and veteran Congressman A. K. Antony.

Anil, who was holding a key post in the IT department of the Congress party, made a surprise entry into the BJP and was seen in his first public outing as a BJP “leader” when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kochi a few months back. Anil has been shortlisted to the Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat, which is out and out a traditional seat of the Congress party, but this is the city where Antony began his political career way back more than six decades back.

Victor T. Thomas a front line leader of the erstwhile Kerala Congress (Mani), an ally of the Congress led UDF, is another leader who recently surprised many when he joined the BJP. Thomas on a couple of occasions contested unsuccessfully to the assembly under the banner of KC(M).

His name figures in the probable list of the BJP and might find a place to contest the Kottayam Lok Sabha seat. A. P. Abdullakutty is another one who began his political career as CPI(M) Lok Sabha member from Kannur, then shifted to the Congress and won to the assembly. Abdullakutty few years back moved to the BJP and in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls contested unsuccessfully from the Malappuram seat.

Presently he is a national vice-president of the BJP. Though the BJP which lost the only seat that it had in the 140 member Kerala assembly in the 2021 assembly polls, they are trying to do everything possible to win one of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state.