Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a tirade against the Congress-led ruling United Democratic Front in Kerala and the Opposition Left, setting the tone for the BJP’s last-leg of the campaign.
Speaking at the Fort Ground in Palakkad in his first poll campaign address in the state ahead of the May 16 Assembly poll, Modi hit out at the corruption-ridden government and the “violent politics” of the Left.
Modi recalled the Centre’s efforts in ensuring the release of Keralite nurses abducted by insurgents in Iraq and evacuating thousands who were stranded in strife-torn Yemen and compared them with the state government’s “ineffective handling” of the case involving the rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Perumbavoor near Kochi.
He also recalled his visit, along with a team of doctors, to the Puttingal temple in Paravur in Kollam where 108 people died in fireworks-triggered explosions.
The prime minister reserved some sarcasm for the state government, making a veiled reference to the solar scam.
“In Varanasi, my constituency, we’ve launched solar-powered boats. But it’s risky for me to come and talk about solar energy in Kerala,” he said.
The Prime Minister slammed the “politics of violence” of the Left parties. “When a principal retired after years of service (from Victoria College in Palakkad), they made a mock grave for her. Should we forgive them?” he asked the thousands who had gathered at the venue.
Modi took the familiar
BJP line in criticising “anti-people” policies of the Congress and the Left and said 60 years of “shared looting” between the two fronts had cost Kerala dear.
‘Get rid of DMK, AIADMK’
Addressing a rally later in Chennai, Modi asked the people of Tamil Nadu to get rid of the two Dravidian parties, the DMK and the AIADMK.
Referring to the devastating floods in Chennai in December, Modi said it was the BJP cadres who helped the people at that time of crisis.
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