‘Metro man’ Sreedharan ready to be Kerala CM if lotus blooms in southern state
"If they (BJP) want, certainly. To tell you very frankly, unless I am the chief minister the priorities cannot be achieved," E Sreedharan told media when asked about whether he was ready for CM post.
New Delhi: Metro Man E Sreedharan, who is set to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expressed his willingness to contest Assembly elections in Kerala. Moreover, he is also open to being Chief Minister of the state, if party backs him for the coveted post.
Sreedharan is likely to formally join the BJP on February 25. He said he is “certainly” ready to be the chief minister if the party wins in the state and wants him to take over the mantle.
“If they (BJP) want, certainly. To tell you very frankly, unless I am the chief minister the priorities cannot be achieved,” Sreedharan told PTI in an interview.
Kerala headed towards bankruptcy, priority to make it debt-free
Sreedhanran further told the agency, “My main idea is to bring BJP to power in Kerala. If BJP comes to power in Kerala, there will be three to four major areas we want to focus on. One is infrastructure development in a big way and another is to bring industry to the state,” he said.
“The state is in a debt trap today, so much of borrowings. And debt burden on each Malayalee is Rs 1.2 lakh today… That means we are heading for bankruptcy and the government still continues to borrow. The state finances need to be propped up and for that, we need to find a solution,” he said.
Kerala headed for polls in April-May
Kerala state president K Surendran said in Kozhikode that Sreedharan would join the party during the Vijay Yatra led by him that will begin from Kasaragod on February 21.
“He will officially join the party during the Vijaya Yatra. Both fronts – LDF and UDF in Kerala have opposed him on several occasions. When Sreedharan opposed Kerala’s practice of taking commission under the guise of development activities, Oommen Chandy opposed him. Pinarayi Vijayan’s approach was similar,” he said.
Surendran added many other prominent people would be joining BJP in the coming days.
This came ahead of the Assembly elections in Kerala scheduled to be conducted between April-May.