New Delhi: Confusion reigned on Thursday about “Metroman” E. Sreedharan, who recently joined the BJP, being projected as the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate in Kerala in the upcoming assembly elections.While some reports had said that the state leadership wanted him to be the CM candidate, Union minister V. Muraleedharan later clarified that the party had not taken any such decision yet.Muraleedharan, who tweeted in this regard earlier, clarified, saying he wanted to inform that through media reports he learnt that the party has announced Sreedharan as the chief ministerial candidate. But when he cross-checked with Kerala party president K. Surendran, he said he has not made any such announcements, Muraleedharan said.Referring to Muraleedharan’s clarification tweet, 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.Previously, reports had said that Surendran had stated that if Sreedharan gets an opportunity to rule the state, “we are confident we will be able to implement development works under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a ten-fold force in Kerala”.Addressing a party meeting here, he highlighted the achievements of Sreedharan, including the completion of the reconstruction of Palarivattom flyover here in five months, much ahead of the stipulated time.“He completed the project in five months without any corruption. That is why we requested Sreedharan and our party leadership that he should be projected as the [NDA’s] chief minister candidate,” he said at the meeting organised as part of the “Vijay Yatra” led by him.Also read: When the Metro Man Boards the Saffron LineThis is the first time the party indicated that Sreedharan will be the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate. Earlier, Sreedharan had said his main aim was to help the party come to power in Kerala and that he will be open to chief ministership.The 88-year-old technocrat had also said the focus will be on developing infrastructure in a big way and bringing the state out of its debt trap if the BJP wins the assembly polls to be held on April 6, 2021.(With PTI inputs)Note: This article was originally published at 7:30 pm on March 4, 2020 and was updated at 8:40 am on March 5, 2020.
