Kerala: The Bharitya Janta Party has named it's Malappuram Lok Sabha by-election candidate, party Vice President A. P. Abdullakutty. On 24th June 2019, Abdullakutty was invited to join the BJP in a meeting with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah; he formally joined BJP on 26th June 2019.
He was elected as the Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party on 26th September 2020.
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A P Abdullakutty is a former member of Lok Sabha from Kannur and ex-MLA from Kannur constituency of Kerala state. He was expelled from the Indian National Congress in June 2019 since in May 2019, Abdullakutty praised some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's schemes in a Facebook post, the Swachh Bharat Mission (cleanliness drive), and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for free LPG connection. He added that the "NDA's victory was an acceptance of Prime Minister Modi's development agenda and the secret of his success was that he adopted Gandhian values", and further stated that "Through 'Swacchhta Bharat' PM gave toilets to 9.26 crore families also gave free LPG connections to six crore families."
In 2009, CPI(M) Mayyil Area committee suspended Abdullakutty from the party for one year for praising the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat development model after which he had joined the Congress party.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced April 6th 2021 as the date for polling of the Kerala State Assembly whereas the counting will be held on May 2nd 2021. For the 140 Assembly seats in Kerala, the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front would hope to create an electoral record by becoming the first government in the state to retain power back-to-back after the swept the municipal polls in December 2020.