Kannur: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Nabin, in a scathing critique of the Congress, said on Wednesday that the grand old party will pay the price for ‘excessive’ minority appeasement at the cost of developmental politics in the impending Assembly elections in Keralam.
The scathing remarks from the BJP Chief, came during a roadshow in Mattannur Assembly constituency, when the latter was questioned about Congress’ outreach and indulgence with the Muslim community.
“Congress is deeply rooted in minority appeasement. They are wearing a ‘topi’ (cap) and offering prayers at shrines but avoiding ‘gamcha’ (a form of local attire). This is how Congress is behaving. People of Kerala are fed up with the Congress, LDF and UDF. They are going to be punished for blatant appeasement,” Nabin told IANS, during the campaign trail in Kannur.
The BJP Chief’s remarks also come in the backdrop of Congress-led UDF and LDF, both ruling and Opposition parties of Kerala, launching a diatribe against the BJP over proposed amendments in the contentious Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill.
A couple of Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, in past few days, have accused the Centre of bulldozing the amendments through the Parliament, describing it as a blatant attempt to destroy NGOs, operated by minority communities in particular.
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional law, which will destroy NGOs and community organisations — especially those run by minority communities. We will not allow the BJP to arm-twist honest philanthropic institutions through this draconian Bill,” Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said in a post on social media platform X.
This also prompted a counter from the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday, who blamed both the LDF and UDF for false rumours peddled by them over the FCRA.
Earlier in the day, BJP President Nabin dubbed the LDF and UDF as ‘match-fixers’ and said that both the political fronts only engaged in manipulating matters and never worked for people’s betterment.
Traditionally, Keralam has followed an alternating pattern of governance, switching between the two parties every five years since 1982.
This trend got broken in 2021 when the LDF, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was re-elected for a second consecutive term.
While the LDF and the UDF are frontrunners, BJP’s entry is likely to give a fresh twist to the electoral contest, particularly in the backdrop of its historic win in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation elections.
The polling for Keralam Assembly elections is set to be held in a single phase on April 9, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 4.
(IANS)
