The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) seeks to offset its perceived political frailties in Kerala by weaving its marketing campaign across the persona of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “development, welfare, and security” agenda.
Mr. Modi is visiting Kerala for the second time in January, signalling that, maybe, after Tamil Nadu, the BJP views the State as an auxiliary launch pad for its growth into south India after the Congress trounced the occasion within the Karnataka and Telangana Meeting elections.
A toehold in Kerala or Tamil Nadu is crucial for the BJP’s nationwide aspirations and makes an attempt to challenge itself as a celebration of regional financial development and inclusiveness.
BJP State president Okay. Surendran has mentioned Mr. Modi will lead a high-decibel roadshow in Kochi on January 16.
On January 17, Mr. Modi will attend a mass wedding ceremony in Guruvayur sponsored by the BJP and participate within the star-studded wedding ceremony of the daughter of actor Suresh Gopi, BJP’s projected candidate from the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency.
He’ll return to Kochi the identical day to chair a gathering of election managers of what the occasion reckons as winnable parliamentary constituencies within the State, primarily Thrissur.
Mr. Modi is making his second political foray into Kerala even because the mud from his resounding roadshow and girls empowerment assembly in Thrissur on January 3 barely started settling.
The BJP’s perceived pivot in direction of Kerala dovetails with its resolve to finish “revolving-door politics” within the State. It has repeatedly drawn a political equivalence between the State Congress and the Communist Social gathering of India (Marxist).
The occasion has pointed to the “anti-Modi” INDIA bloc compact between the ruling entrance and the Opposition on the Centre to color the Congress and the CPI(M) in Kerala as allies masquerading as rivals to hoodwink the State’s citizens.
Furthermore, BJP heavyweights have been visiting Kerala and attending public features with growing frequency within the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar outstanding amongst them.
Their comings and goings have lent credence to political hypothesis that the BJP may area large names from the Union authorities in parliamentary constituencies, together with Thiruvananthapuram, the place the occasion believes it has a combating likelihood in opposition to the Congress and the CPI(M).
Rahul Gandhi’s presence within the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala has additionally prompted the BJP to accord elevated significance to the State in its Lok Sabha electoral calculus.