Janata Party denied seat: Swamy

KOCHI: Janata Party (JP) president Subramanian Swamy has alleged that the BJP in Kerala had ignored the central leadership’s suggestion to give Piravom Assembly seat to his party. “Despite the suggestion of BJP president Nitin Gadkari and veteran leader L K Advani to the Kerala BJP to leave Piravom Assembly seat for JP, they refused to do so”, says Subramanian Swamy in his twitter. Swamy told ‘Express’ that he had talked to Nitin Gadkari and Advani about fielding a Janata Party candidate in Piravom. He also said that the party would fight it alone in Piravom and added that Varghese P Cheriyan had been fielded as its candidate. However, Cheriyan is an independent candidate according to the website of the Chief Electoral Officer. Swamy also declined BJP state president V Muraleedharan’s statement that his party had not approached the BJP.  However, Muraleedharan said the candidate was decided by the central leadership of the party.  “We have not given the ticket but had made some suggestions to the central leadership, who decided on the candidature,” he said. Stating that the Janata Party had not called on him and expressed their wish to contest in Piravom, he said that if there was any interest, they should have approached the party. Moreover, Muraleedharan said that Swamy might have come out with such a statement as the partymen in the state could have misled him. “The Janata Party leadership in the state might have told Swamy that they had approached the BJP leadership here with the proposal,” he said. Sources said that the BJP might not have given the seat to the Janata Party as they did not want to create an impression that they had sold votes by not fielding a candidate.