Nadda slams LDF,UDF, asks people to help Lotus bloom in Kerala

Also targeting the UDF, which is going all out to make the Sabarimala women entry issue a major poll plank in the elections likely to be held in April-May this year, Nadda said it "back-stabbed" the devotees. He claimed it was the saffron party workers against whom all the cases were registered. 

The Congress had recently asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to seek legal remedies to "heal the wounds" created in society due to its alleged hasty decision to implement the apex court verdict of September 2018 allowing women of all age groups to enter the Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala. 

The southern state had witnessed protests by right wing and BJP workers against allowing women in the banned 10- 50 age group being allowed in the temple. 

The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were giving "special focus" and attention to Kerala and over Rs 19,000 crore has been kept apart for the state to ease its revenue deficit, Nadda said addressing a massive rally of party workers at the Thekkinkadu maidan here this evening. 

"The LDF and UDF are corrupt, both are non-performing, they have no vision and their only aim is to grab power. Time has come for the people of Kerala to allow them to rest and give us work," he said. "This government is a government of non-performance.... of inaction.... atrocities against women and Dalits are increasing," he said. "The leaders and political parties have brought a bad name to Kerala. The LDF led by Pinarayi Vijayan and the UDF led by Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala have brought a bad name to Kerala. It's full of corruption. Law and order has crumbled," Nadda said. 

He also slammed the state's COVID-19 management, saying the cases were rising in the state. 

"How they have messed up the COVID-19 situation. There is a narrative here. To adopt Kerala model. What's the Kerala Model? More than 50 per cent cases are from Kerala." 

"Still the health minister claims that the rise in cases are due to population density. What kind of justification is that? I am sorry to say I have been the health minister and helped the state during Nipah." He said over Rs 2,600 crore was given for flood relief. "Nothing has been utilised. We need to remove this government. We request people to remove the government and help the Lotus bloom," Nadda said. Citing the gold smuggling case in which Vijayan's former principal secretary M Sivasankar had been arrested by central agencies probing it and ''Solar sexual exploitation'' case in which senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is among the five party leaders named, the BJP leader sarcastically said one Chief Minister has love and affection towards gold and the other gets energy from Solar. 

"I am sorry to say, it has given a very bad name to the state with the various corruptions and scandals," he said. Nadda also flayed the LDF government for moving a resolution in the state assembly against the CAG for its adverse remarks in its audit report of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), saying the government was attacking constitutional bodies in the state. 

He also listed various projects sanctioned by the Centre for the state including the Mumbai-Kanyakumari economic corridor for which rs 50,000 crore has been set apart. 

During the lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had transferred Rs 500 each for three months to 20 crore women across the country in their Jan Dhan accounts and 47 lakh people were benefited in the state. 

Eight crore gas connections were given to the women here, he said. 

The BJP leader said he had come to the same venue in 2016 during the assembly polls and there was a "sea change" in the enthusiasm of the people now. 

Former DGP Jacob Thomas, who recently joined the BJP, was welcomed by Nadda on the stage by wrapping a shawl around him. 

Nadda, who was on a two-day visit to poll-bound Kerala, addressed party office bearers from the 140 assembly constituencies earlier in the day. 

Senior leader Shobha Surendran, who had been keeping away from party functions over the past 10 months unhappy with the state leadership, too attended the rally.