The next Lotus island?

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah will be in Lakshadweep on May 16, 17 and 18. The visit is part of Shah’s efforts to strengthen the party organisation in areas where it has been traditionally weak. Last month, Shah visited West Bengal; he is scheduled to visit Telangana from May 22 to 24. Lakshadweep, a Union territory, sends only one member to the Lok Sabha. BJP sources couldn’t remember the last time a party chief visited Lakshadweep, an archipelago of 36 islands in the Indian Ocean. In 1987, then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi made Lakshadweep famous when he went on a holiday there with his family. Incidentally, in the 2014 elections, the BJP candidate for the Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat bagged only 187 of the 43,239 votes polled.