Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters during a road show in Kochi on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Tearing into the bipolar politics of Kerala at a public meeting and launching a series of projects at two adjacent venues in Kochi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started the poll campaign of the National Democratic Alliance in the State on Wednesday.
Mr. Modi also undertook a roadshow near the venue of the events as hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party workers lined up on the flanks of the road to greet their leader.
The political criticism and inauguration of projects of around ₹11,000 crore came against the backdrop of political parties busy finalising the list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in the State.
Incidentally, after his whirlwind tour of the State in the the morning, Mr. Modi left for Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, which is also going to the polls, to launch a few projects there and address public meetings.
In Kochi, Mr. Modi drew parallels between the present Left Democratic Front government and the earlier United Democratic Front government. He alleged that both the fronts were partners in corruption, crimes, spreading communalism, stonewalling development projects, and closing down of industrial units. Their only difference was in their names, according to Mr. Modi.
He also criticised the reported political alliance between the Welfare Party of India, the political party of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and the Congress in Kerala. The Congress has become the Muslim League Maoist Congress in Kerala, taking a dig at the political understanding the Congress has made in the State.
Mr. Modi also raised the political understanding the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had reportedly entered into with the People’s Democratic Party earlier by mentioning that some of the leaders of the latter had been found involved in extremist activities.
The Sabarimala temple gold theft case also found mention in the political campaign of Mr. Modi. He held both the LDF and the UDF culpable for the gold theft at the hill temple. While the LDF leaders were accused of theft, the UDF leaders stood accused of helping to sell the loot, he said.
He termed that scams, the solar scam, which rocked the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government, and the CMRL scam, regarding the alleged payments made by Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited to a firm run by the daughter of the Kerala Chief Minister, were the hallmark of both the UDF and the LDF in the State.
The Prime Minister also used the venue for launching development projects to counter LDF criticism that the NDA government was adopting a step-motherly attitude to the development needs of the State. Mr. Modi said the Union government had made record allocation for infrastructure development in the Budget and Kerala too benefited from the projects.
He left the State for Tamil Nadu in the afternoon.
Published – March 11, 2026 09:04 pm IST
