Thiruvananthapuram: Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has special feelings for the people of Kerala and cited the example of the PM reaching a firecracker explosion site at a temple at Puttingal in Kollam within three hours of the incident.
Nadda recalled that when 400 people had lost their lives in that incident Modi had directed him, the then Union health minister, to stay in Kerala to lead the rescue operations and attend to the critically injured along with a team of doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi.
Nadda said that Modi had brought 40 Kerala nurses who were stuck at the ISIS headquarters in Iraq as captives back to Kerala. He said that he had mentioned these incidents to illustrate the love and care Modi had for the state.
He said that the Modi government had provided Rs 65,000 crore for 1000 km of national highway development in Kerala in the latest Union budget and added that this is the care and love of the Narendra Modi government for Kerala.
The BJP leader said that whether there is a BJP government in Kerala or not is a matter for the people to decide but the BJP is committed to serving the people of the state.
He lashed out at both the LDF and the UDF and said that both these fronts are two sides of the same coin. He ridiculed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s stand in the gold smuggling case and said that Vijayan had earlier welcomed the central agencies for an impartial investigation and when the agencies reached the doorstep of the Chief Minister’s Office he showered abuses on them. Nadda pointed out that this was the double standard adopted by the CPM and the LDF in Kerala.
Coming down heavily on the UDF, he said that Oommen Chandy who was kicked out by the people of Kerala has come back again to lead the Congress and the UDF in the coming assembly elections. He asked the Grand Old Party whether it has any qualms in bringing old wine in a new bottle.
The BJP leader said that even Kerala assembly speaker Sreeramakrishnan is under the scanner in the gold smuggling case and charged the LDF government of having brought a resolution against the constitutional body, the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The former Union health minister lashed out at the Kerala health department and the minister in particular and said that there is a whopping increase in Covid cases in the state. The test positivity rate of the state is five times that of other parts of the country. The state health minister is making ridiculous statements that the Covid spread in Kerala is owing to the population density.
He said that while the Congress and the CPM are fighting against each other in Kerala, they are in cahoots in West Bengal. He added that the people of Kerala will be ready for ushering in a change in regime in the state.
The BJP leader said that the people of the state should kick out the corrupt and inept LDF and UDF and bring the BJP to power for the all-round development of the state.
Meanwhile, the former DG of the Kerala Police, Jacob Thomas, received his BJP membership from JP Nadda.
