THRISSUR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman L. Ganesh has said that the party will soon work out a shift in the policies and strategies to be adopted in Kerala in the wake of repeated electoral setbacks in the State.

Mr. Ganesh was talking to mediapersons here on Saturday on the sidelines of a State-level meeting of the party to review the outcome of the Assembly elections and work out a detailed organisational election plan.

Replying to questions, Mr. Ganesh said the party was finding it difficult to make any significant headway in the electoral politics because of the two well-entrenched combines in the State.

The image of the BJP as an `anti-minority' formation was also creating roadblocks for the growth of the party in the State where the minorities form about 48 per cent of the population, Mr. Ganesh said.

The new policies that the BJP was planning to work out in Kerala should contain strategies to come clear of that image and to win the confidence of the minorities, he said. Asked how will it be possible for the BJP to launch specific initiatives for winning the confidence of the minorities when it has been accusing others of appeasing the minorities, Mr. Ganesh said: "It must be possible to reconcile with these two positions, we are not for appeasing anybody. We are for justice to all."

He reiterated the position that the BJP was adhering to `Hindutva' to aver its commitment to the national culture and it was not related to any religion. He said it was not possible to divulge the details of the change in policies and strategies that the party was planning in the State at this stage. Those changes would be made only after detailed debates in the party forums at various levels.

He, however, said that the concept of coalition would be the only possible option for the party in Kerala in future also. According to Mr. Ganesh, the election review meeting of the party in the State was delayed because it had to be deferred twice to make it convenient for the national-level leaders to attend.

Returning officer

Mr. Ganesh announced that the party leader P.D. Purushothaman had been appointed the State returning officer for conducting the organisational polls. He would be in charge of conducting the elections from the booths to the district level.

The returning officer for holding the State-level organisational elections would be appointed by the central leadership. The booth-level elections in the BJP will be held in July in the State while the mandalam and district level elections will be completed by August.

The State-level election is scheduled for September-October, Mr. Ganesh said. The two-day State-level meeting is being attended by several leaders including Sanjay Joshi, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, O. Rajagopal and C.K. Padmanabhan.

The former party national president Venkaiah Naidu is expected to attend the election review meeting on Sunday.

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