Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 4: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed the confidence that for the first time the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was certain to come to power in the southern-most state of Kerala and the countdown for sending off the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has already begun.
Speaking at a BJP-led NDA rally in Thiruvalla in the Pathanamthitta district, PM Modi said he had visited Kerala previously also but the “mood of change” this time was different from earlier. “I have come here before as well, but this time the winds of change are blowing in a different direction. The biggest transformation is now about to take place in Keralam. Voting will be held on April 9, and on May 4, the end of decades of misgovernance will be declared. It is now certain that the countdown to the exit of the LDF government has begun. For the first time, a BJP-NDA government is coming to power in Keralam,” he said.
Mr Modi said Kerala has great potential, yet continues to lag behind other states in the race for development because both the CPM-led LDF and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments in the past had ignored Kerala’s development. According to him, his government has spent more than what was allotted by the government at the Centre from 2004-14 for Kerala’s development.
He said the NDA’s policies have benefitted every group, especially the women. Migration of youth for job remains the biggest problem of Kerala, PM Modi said, but stressed that all issues of the state would be resolved once the BJP forms the government in the coastal state, calling it a ‘Modi ki guarantee.’
The BJP-led NDA will ensure the overall development of Kerala, like it did in northeast states and Goa, which have significant Christian population, PM Modi said. He said the basic infrastructure of Kerala’s rural areas was not up to the mark, but the subsequent LDF and UDF paid no attention to it. Continuing his attack at the LDF, PM Modi even alleged that the Left had stalled the Sabari rail project.
The prime minister also claimed that rumours were being spread that southern states will lose Lok Sabha seats due to population control, but they are all false. “The LDF-UDF governments have never cared about this region. The condition of connecting roads here is deplorable. Not a single major bridge has been built here for many years, and the state of the medical college is so poor. Where there is such a severe lack of basic infrastructure, anyone can imagine what your standard of living must be like,” he said.
The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was also campaigning in Kerala on Saturday, alleged that the Modi government was putting the security of every Indian at risk by attempting to “cover up its own failures” and concealing the reality of foreign surveillance through Chinese cameras installed at vital locations. Pointing out that the Modi government had last week banned the public use of the China-made CCTV cameras on suspicion of espionage, Mr Gandhi said, “This is a deliberate conspiracy to keep India in the dark,” he said in a post on Facebook.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gandhi also targeted both the LDF and the BJP alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was in a partnership with people who “attack minorities” in other parts of the country.
Addressing an election gathering in Alappuzha, Mr Gandhi reiterated his allegation of a BJP–LDF understanding and accused the Prime Minister of not speaking about the Sabarimala issue during the election campaign. Referring to former CPI(M) leader G. Sudhakaran, who shared the stage with the Congress leader, Mr Gandhi said his presence reflected a deeper shift within the CPI(M)-led LDF.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief Sunny Joseph on Saturday alleged that the boxes being used in the north Kerala district for collecting votes of home voters have wide mouths through which the ballots can be taken out, and sought the intervention of the CEC and CEO to ensure free and fair polls.
Mr Joseph claimed that when he took the issue to the attention of the district collector, the official got angry at him, instead of assuring him that he would look into the matter. He alleged that the collector was “acting as an agent of the ruling front” and sought the intervention of the Chief Election Commission (CEC) and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state to ensure free and fair polls.
He made the allegations at a press conference, where he claimed that the mouth of the ballot box was too wide and, therefore, anyone could take out the ballots from it. “It needs to be answered why such a wide slit was created on the box. This can be misused or tampered with. The ballot papers can be changed after taking them out. It is an attempt to sabotage the polling process,” Joseph alleged.