After tweeting 'Metroman' E Sreedharan, who recently joined the BJP, will be its chief ministerial candidate for the Kerala assembly elections on April 6, Union Minister V Muraleedharan clarified on Thursday that the party has not made any such announcement.

Muraleedharan, who tweeted in this regard earlier, clarified, saying he wanted to inform that through media reports he learnt that the party has announced Sreedharan as the chief ministerial candidate.

But when he cross-checked with Kerala party president K Surendran, he said he has not made any such announcements, Muraleedharan, who is also a former BJP state president, said.

In his tweet, Muraleedharan had said.."BJP4Keralam will fight Keralapolls with E Sreedharan Ji as its Chief Ministerial Candidate.We will defeat both CPIMKerala & INCKerala to provide a corruption-free, development-oriented Governance for the people of Kerala."

His social media post on Sreedharan's leadership in the Assembly polls came hours after Surendran said he has requested the party's national leadership to announce 'Metroman' as the NDA's chief ministerial candidate.

Referring to Muraleedharan's clarification tweets, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a dig at the BJP, saying the saffron party was "confused".

"Hilarious! BJP4Keralam manages to be confused about who will occupy the top floor of a building that will never be built.There will be no BJP CM in Kerala," Tharoor tweeted.

The development comes on a day the 88-year-old technocrat announced his decision to end his 24-year long career with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to enter electoral politics.

Earlier, Surendran, who is leading the party's Vijay Yatra said, if the NDA "under the leadership of 'Metroman', gets an opportunity to rule the state, "we are confident we will be able to implement development works under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a ten-fold force in Kerala."

Addressing a party meeting in Thiruvalla, Surendran highlighted the achievements of Sreedharan, including the completion of the reconstruction of Palarivattom flyover here in five months, much ahead of the stipulated time.

This was the first time the party indicated that Sreedhran will be the NDA's chief ministerial candidate.

The party sought to project Sreedharan's leadership in the polls amid the process of determining the candidates for the assembly election.

Sreedharan has said his main aim was to help the party come to power in Kerala and that he will be open to chief ministership.