Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Surendran on Friday clarified that the party's Central leadership will announce their chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Kerala Assembly Polls.
This comes a day after the state party chief had said Sreedharan will be BJP's Chief Minister candidate in the upcoming Assembly elections.
He further explained that what he had said was that the party and the people wish to see Sreedharan as the Chief Minister.
"I have not announced E Sreedharan as BJP Chief Minister candidate and it is for party central leadership to announce. What I said yesterday was people and the party wish to see E Sreedharan as Chief Minister candidate. I did not make any announcement," he said at a press conference here.
He reiterated that people are wishing for the leadership of Sreedharan. "V Muraleedharan tweeted that Sreedharan will be CM candidate based on media reports that I made the announcement," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Union Minister for External Affairs V Muraleedharan had tweeted, "BJP will fight Kerala polls with E Sreedharan Ji as its chief ministerial candidate. We will defeat both CPIM and Congress to provide a corruption-free, development-oriented Governance for the people of Kerala."
Regarding himself contesting polls, Surendran said that it was for the party to decide.
"Candidates will be announced by the party after the parliamentary board meeting in the coming week," he said.
Former Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan formally joined BJP in Malappuram on February 25 in presence of Union Minister RK Singh. He joined the party during BJP's ongoing Vijaya Yatra led by Kerala BJP Chief K Surendran.
On February 18, Sreedharan announced that he will join the BJP. "If BJP comes to power in Kerala, I am ready to become the chief minister. The party has not asked me till now as it is too premature. But if BJP asks me, I am willing to take up the post and show how a state can be run efficiently like we are running DMRC," Sreedharan had said.
The election for 140-member Kerala Assembly will be held on April 6, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced.
( With inputs from ANI )
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