BJP leaders celebrate Vishu festival with church heads in Kerala; Congress calls on archbishop

The Vishu festival in Kerala on Saturday witnessed BJP leaders celebrating the festival with church heads, while Congress state leadership called on an archbishop who openly offered support to BJP recently.

After visiting Christian homes and meeting church heads on the Easter day, BJP leaders invited church heads to the homes of party leaders across the state to celebrate Vishu festival.

Party national leader in charge of Kerala Prakash Javadekar too participated in one such meeting held at the house of party Thiruvananthapuram district president V V Suresh.

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Javadekar told reporters that it was not vote bank politics. BJP has members from all religions and all festivals are celebrated by the party. He also tweeted that BJP is conveying Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message that all were citizens of India regardless of religion or caste.

BJP is also planning similar programmes during the coming Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the Congress state leadership called on Thalaserry Metropolitan archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany, who recently offered electoral support to BJP provided rubber price is raised to Rs. 300 per kilogram.

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Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K Sudhakaran later told reporters that the Christian community in Kerala would continue to support the Congress only as they could realise BJP's real intentions. Congress has no concerns over BJP's attempts to make inroads into Christian community, he said.

CPM had recently flayed BJP's Christian outreach initiatives. The party accused that some church heads were compromising with the BJP owing to the pressure by the BJP government at the centre. An editorial in CPM mouthpiece People's Democracy also alleged that BJP was triggering anti-Muslim feeling among the Christian community.