Lok Sabha polls 2024: Idea is to push BJP to third slot in Thrissur, says Muraleedharan

Kozhikode (Kerala), Mar 8 (PTI) K Muraleedharan, Congress MP and son of party stalwart and former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran, on Friday said that his father's legacy is an "asset" of the grand old party and "would not be handed over to the BJP".

Speaking to reporters after being nominated to represent the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, Muraleedharan was referring to the use of Karunakaran's image alongside those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Padmaja Venugopal in a BJP banner put up in Nilambur in the northern Kerala district of Malappuram.

"An organisation that Karunakaran opposed all his life has now got an opportunity to play with his image," the Congress MP remarked regretfully.

"As long as we all are alive, we will not relinquish him" to the BJP, he asserted.

Muraleedharan, who is contesting against actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi and LDF candidate V S Sunil Kumar in Thrissur, said that the aim of the Congress is to push the BJP into the third spot in every constituency in the state.

"They (BJP) will not be allowed to touch ground in Kerala," he declared.

He said he would be leaving for Thrissur on Saturday and would fulfil the responsibility given to him by the party.

Muraleedharan rejected reporters' queries on whether his nomination to represent Thrissur instead of Vatakara, from where he won last time, was influenced by his sister Padmaja's decision to join the BJP.

Padmaja joined the BJP on Thursday. PTI