In the imminent by-poll in the assembly constituency of Chengannur, the BJP is letting no stone unturned to capitalize on the Job Fair to be organized by the Central Labour Ministry on 13 March.
Although BJP's candidate PS Sreedharan Pillai has no official capacity to participate in the mela, his picture has started figuring in the posters of the event to be held in Chengannur Chinmaya Vidyalaya. To add glamour to the poster, Sreedharan Pillai's photo is placed beside that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources connected with such official events note that while such job fairs normally happen without much fanfare, in this case the BJP leaders have taken it upon themselves to publicize extensively the function through social media. Those including the state general secretary have started using their Facebook page featuring the fair, apparently in a bid to attract the youth of the constituency.
As the election notification has not been released so far, the code of conduct for elections is yet to take effect, and so it is not possible to bar such propaganda about a central government scheme with the candidate PS Sreddharan Pillai's picture in it.
However, along with the pictures of the leaders, the posters do carry the official stamp of the Central Government, and the official project logo of 'Make in India'. It also shows the photograph of BJP State General Secretary AN Radhakrishnan at the bottom. The explanation given by party sources for this insertion is that it is AN Radhakrishnan's Kochi-based firm 'Sign' that prepares the skills development projects of the centre, and organizes job fairs.
All said and done, the fact that a job fair which is supposed to be for all districts, and should normally go off without such street publicity, is being held in Chengannur is because of the importance it has assumed as a constituency with a by-poll coming, a fact not denied by BJP leaders.