Four more days are left for the Kerala visit of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP-led NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, but the Congress-led ruling UDF and CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF are already in panic following reports that he has set in motion certain practical plans to widen the BJP’s support base in the State.
leaderships of the two main political fronts are apprehensive that Modi, during his brief visit to the State, may hold meetings with certain highly influential religious leaders who could help the BJP in forging new alliances despite the fact that the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Kerala programme this time is brief and purely spiritual.
Modi is visiting Kerala on September 26 to take part in the 60th birthday celebrations of spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi at her Ashram at Amritapuri, Vallikkavu in Kollam district. As per the schedule of the one-day visit, he has no political programmes in Kerala apart from a possible BJP meeting in Thiruvananthapuram.
However, leaders of the main fronts and observers are attaching immense political significance to Modi’s visit to Kerala, the first since his coronation as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. His last visit to Kerala was on April 24 to take part in a spiritual conclave at the Sivagiri Mutt at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district.
The main apprehension among the leaders of the UDF and lDF is that the so-called ‘Modi camp’ in the Kerala BJP is on a bid to forge at least an informal alliance with certain sections of the Christians, especially the highly influential Catholics, and that there might be attempts at this during the visit of Modi. However, BJP leaders are yet to comment on this.
“Everybody knows that there is a section in the Catholic Church which favours establishment of friendship with the BJP. We had seen this friendship at work earlier during the NDA rule. We are told that a top functionary of the Church is likely to meet Modi during his visit,” said a Congress leader from Kottayam.
The Congress leader, himself a Catholic, admitted that the UDF could suffer considerable losses in terms of votes in the lok Sabha election, particularly in regions like Kottayam district, if these alleged attempts became successful. “It is true that many middle class Catholics are in support of Modi’s development programmes,” he added.
At the same time, the left is worried that frequent visits to Kerala by Modi, a leader highly acceptable to the middle class and forward communities of the Hindus, could hit them hard in the election. The CPI(M) views the Hindu middle class and forward communities as the left’s trusted support bases as far as elections are concerned.
For the same reason, the left, which had carried out a campaign against Modi when he came to Kerala in April last, has so far refrained from anything like that. “They are still in confusion. They don’t know how their supporters among the Hindus would react to fierce anti-Modi campaigns at this juncture,” said a senior journalist with Marxist publication.
The CPI(M) was also embarrassed by the praises showered by the eminent jurist, retired Justice VR Krishna Iyer whom the Marxist have always considered as a trusted fellow-traveler, on Modi on his 64th birthday. Hailing Modi’s positive qualities of nationalism, Iyer had extended his best wishes to him for becoming India’s future Prime Minister.