Prime Minister Narendra Modi literally rocked Thrissur city on Wednesday by holding a 1.5 km long road show and addressing a mammoth women’s rally organised by the BJP State unit. The impact his speech made on the women could be understood by the fact that they returned home singing ‘Modiyude Guarantee’ (Modi’s Guarantee), a term the Prime Minister used to emphasise the measures implemented by his government over the last ten years.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister declared that the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF were two sides of the same coin. These two alliances were cheating and swindling the people of the State alternately. “Please understand that there is no difference between these fronts except in their names. What they are doing is stealing money meant for development and blaming Narendra Modi for the failures. The Kerala Government accepts with glee all funds allocated by the Centre for various development programmes and squanders them away, denying the poor and downtrodden the benefits of development.

No infrastructure projects have started due to the anti-people policies of the LDF and the UDF, while the rest of the nation is progressing with state-of-the-art roads, highways, rail, and airports,” lambasted the Prime Minister.

The 40-minute-long speech by the Prime Minister was a charge sheet against the CPM-led Government and the INDI alliance, in which the Communists play a crucial role. “Under the pretext of the ‘Hate Modi’ campaign, the Communists are cheating the poor people. However, over the last decade, we have played a significant role in empowering the women of the country. The free LPG connections issued to women, the PM Awaaz Yojana in which women were given equal rights while allocating houses - all these were part of the Modi Guarantee we made in 2014. We have liberated our Muslim sisters from the shackles of Triple Talaq and made 33 per cent compulsory reservation for women in Parliament and legislatures,” said the Prime Minister. It is worth noting that Kerala is one of the States that is yet to implement the Aayushman Bharat scheme, which assures free medical aid to the poor.

Modi also pointed out the criticism by the CPM government in Kerala that the Centre was not allocating the funds requested by the State.

“We have given them more than what they have asked for. But when we ask them how they have spent the money, they get furious,” said the Prime Minister.

Referring to the Christmas lunch he hosted for spiritual leaders and eminent persons of the Christian community recently, the Prime Minister mentioned that he was blessed by Christian spiritual leaders and wished by the citizens during the meeting. “The BJP has come to power in North Eastern States, which are Christian-majority States, and this itself is an answer to our critics. The BJP has embraced ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Viswas’ as our guiding principle. But what is the CPI(M) doing in Kerala? They are destroying the sanctity of temples and subverting Hindu festivals like the famous Thrissur Pooram,” said the Prime Minister.

The main attraction of the speech was the Prime Minister himself describing the achievements of his government as ‘Modiyude Guarantee’ in Malayalam, which the assembled crowd embraced. “The crowd that turned up for this meeting was unprecedented. I have never seen such a crowd in the last 50 years, except for the Thrissur Pooram. This is a historical event,” said Nandakishore, the unofficial cultural ambassador of Thrissur.

The BJP succeeded in assembling eminent women, including Olympian PT Usha MP, actress Shobhana, musician Vijayalakshmi, scientist Dr Sosamma (credited with saving the Vechoor cows from extinction), billionaire fashion designer Beena Kannan, and Mariuakutty, the poor woman from Idukki who has been battling against the CPM government for her old-age pension.

The meeting is designated as the prelude to the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.