BJP Leader Deletes Tweet After Announcing E Sreedharan As CM Candidate For Kerala Polls, Congress Takes A Dig

Metroman Sreedharan who recently joined BJP said he was expecting a "big" win in the election, and that he had "made only one demand" - "I want to contest in a constituency not far from Ponnani where I am residing now."

Kerala Assembly Elections: Hours after announcing on Twitter that Metroman E Sreedharan will be BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate for Kerala Assembly Polls Union Minister V Muraleedharan clarified on Thursday that the party has not made any such announcement. Muraleedharan, who tweeted in this regard earlier, clarified, saying he wanted to inform that through media reports he learned that the party has announced Sreedharan as the chief ministerial candidate.

"There were some statements E Sreedharan will be the chief ministerial candidate in Kerala. I heard media reports that the party has announced him as the Chief Minister candidate,"  Muraleedharan told news agency ANI.

"After I talked to the party president, he said he hasn't made any statement and was referring to some issue in Kerala. So it should not be considered an announcement. I'm clarifying it," he added.

Earlier in the day,  Muraleedharan had tweeted: "Kerala BJP will fight Kerala polls with E Sreedharanji as its chief ministerial candidate. We will defeat both CPM and Congress to provide corruption-free, development-oriented governance for the people of Kerala."

Muraleedharan said that he cross-checked with Kerala party president K Surendran he said he has not made any such announcements.

Shashi Tharoor takes a dig at BJP

Referring to Muraleedharan’s clarification tweets, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a dig at the BJP, saying the saffron party was “confused”. “Hilarious! BJP4Keralam manages to be confused about who will occupy the top floor of a building that will never be built. There will be no BJP CM in Kerala,” Tharoor tweeted.

However, Sreedharan's name has been forwarded to the BJP's central leadership to consider him for the position of Chief Minister.

"'Metro man' E Sreedharan built (a) bridge in five months without corruption. Not like the flyover which had to be brought down and was reflective of the CPM-UDF misrule. We have requested the party to make E Sreedharan the Chief Minister candidate," Surendran said Thursday afternoon.

Many have also raised questions on making Sreedharan the Chief Minister as it seems contrary to an "unofficial" rule in the party - that nobody over 75 can be considered for a ministerial berth or role.

Sreedharan will turn 89 in June. There is, however, immediate precedence for exceptions to that rule; BS Yediyurappa was 76 when he was sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2019.