Thiruvananthapuram, March 24
Newly appointed Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday said his mission is 'Viksit Keralam' inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Viksit Bharat’.

“Born to a man with an Indian Army background in Gujarat, studied in Thrissur (Kerala) and other schools and then worked in the US and India. Then I had 18 years of experience in the Rajya Sabha. My high command and all of you have entrusted me with this job and I will assure all of you that I will return only after bringing a BJP-led NDA government in Kerala,” said Chandrasekhar.

On Sunday, he was the only person who filed the nomination for the post of the party's president, and on Monday Union Minister Pralhad Joshi made the announcement of Chandrasekhar becoming the new Kerala BJP chief.

The outgoing president, K. Surendran handed over the party flag and the minutes book signalling the new president has taken over.

Chandrasekhar spoke at length about the hard work put in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past 11 years and said his vision and mission are also the same as that of PM Modi.

“Eleven years ago when PM Modiji took over, just like Kerala which is reeling under bad governance, our country was facing the same. But now due to PM Modiji, we have reached the top 4. A new India has been built by Modiji’s hard work, policies and good governance,” said Chandrasekhar.

“We owe this to the politics of performance in 11 years as the political governance helped India to rise. That’s what we the BJP will do in Kerala and that is my mission and vision,” said Chandrasekhar.

“In the country, we are now seeing changes in technology, trade and manufacturing. This will be there to be seen in Kerala too. Investment will come to places where talent is there and talent will go to places where opportunities are there. This is the reality and we will build a Kerala where there are no 'nokku kooli (gawking wages)' and opportunities,” added Chandrasekhar.

“The job of our party and the workers is to spread this to every household. Viksit Keralam is our vision and mission and all should benefit irrespective of religion or community,” said the 60-year-old former Minister of State.

He then said Kerala has huge potential but opportunities are not there and hence our youths are hugely successful outside.

“When they get chances they turn successful. The reason why Kerala is lagging behind is that our state government survives on borrowed money. Just look 500 km from here in Karnataka there are thousands of job opportunities but not here,” said the new president.

"Answers to why Kerala has not progressed have to be found out. Is it because of the economy, is it because of the huge debt, is it because of the drug influence or is it due to radicalization? These are all huge challenges,” said Chandrasekhar.

“In the past 70 years, Kerala has seen only assurances from the Left and Congress. So a change is needed and that’s why we the BJP have a mission and that is to bring change. We will achieve what Modiji did for the country,” added Chandrasekhar.

Incidentally, this is the first time that the Kerala unit of the national ruling party has brought in a person with little political hardcore experience to lead the party.

The only experience in Kerala that Chandrasekhar has was when he was asked to take on three-time sitting Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor at the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

At the polls, he gave a tough fight to Tharoor who eventually won by around 16,000 votes.

His appointment also raised eyebrows as even the RSS leadership in Kerala was also caught unawares, and with the party, which is deeply divided between faction leaders in the state, it remains to be seen how smooth will Chandrasekhar’s new assignment be.

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Mission is 'Viksit Keralam', says Rajeev Chandrasekhar after becoming BJP chief in Kerala