On 18 March, ‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan filed his nomination papers as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate from the Palakkad assembly constituency of Kerala. He said that he is confident that people of the state will join hands with the BJP to enable ‘sustainable development’.
With the Kerala Assembly elections around the corner, in an interview with The News Minute, Sreedharan speaks about the reason behind joining the Bharatiya Janata Party and why he ventured into politics.
Having led many prestigious infrastructure projects in the country such as railways and the Delhi Metro, Sreedharan says that he wanted to use his accumulated knowledge for the betterment of his native state Kerala.
He also says that the UDF and LDF governments in Kerala only work for the betterment of their parties. “Since there has been no development in the state of Kerala in terms of industries, I thought I will be able to contribute to the state by joining the BJP,” he tells The News Minute.
He says that he wants to bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in the state so that there is transparency in functioning without any scandals and corruption.
Upon being asked the reason for joining BJP, he says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has helped the country progress with his “devotion and passion”.
He also says that the current government in Kerala has not done much in terms of development in the health and education sector.
“Digitalisation programmes in schools are ongoing for the last 8 years and the schools are not in a good shape. The government did very little to find out the reason for the flood situation in Kerala to ensure the manmade disaster never happens again,” he adds.
He further alleges that the state government has not ensured housing to people who were displaced after the floods.
While justifying the current situation in Jammu & Kashmir, Sreedharan also claims that a few people in J&K were creating problems and they had to be stopped. “Many others would have died if the government had not taken certain measures in the state,” he adds.
Sreedharan further says that the vote on 2 May will show a win for him. He also promised development in the areas of transportation, agriculture, housing and industry. “I want to bring in environmentally friendly industries to the state of Kerala,” he said.
(With inputs from The News Minute)
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