THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP will ‘significantly’ increase its votes in Kerala and also win seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He was interacting with reporters at BJP state headquarters here on Sunday as part of the party’s election campaign. Fadnavis accused the ruling LDF and opposition UDF of pandering to ‘anti-national forces’ and making electoral alliances with them as part of vote bank politics. He said the upcoming election was a contest between two ‘groups’ -- one led by Modi and the other by Rahul Gandhi.
“If the people vote for NDA, it will benefit Modi. If they vote for LDF or UDF, Rahul Gandhi will be benefitting from it. People will elect Modi as their leader and the BJP-led NDA will win more than 400 seats across the country,” Fadnavis said.
While predicting that the Lok Sabha election in Kerala will witness a ‘miracle’, Fadnavis was non-committal when asked about the number of seats the party would win from the state. “Kerala is way behind in terms of development and people are well aware of it. Hence, they want to join the national mainstream and rally behind Narendra Modi,” he said.
Terming Thiruvannathapuram as a city with immense potential, Fadnavis emphasised that Rajeev Chandrasekhar was the ideal candidate for the constituency. He pointed out that the country’s first software park was set up in Thiruvananthapuram.
“While other cities that followed suit later turned into technology hubs, Thiruvananthapuram is still lagging behind. As a Union minister, Rajeev has brought out many innovative projects in the IT sector and will be able to tap the capital city’s potential,” he said.
Listing out the achievements of the Modi government, Fadnavis said India, currently the fifth largest economy in the world, was poised to become No. 3 in the next five years. He said that there was no anti-incumbency against the Modi government anywhere in the country.
“Due to projects like the Garib Kalyan Yojana, around 25 crore people crossed the Below Poverty Line (BPL). The Modi government provided houses to about 20 crore people and drinking water to 50 crore. Owing to these development projects, Modi-led BJP government is getting much support from all states,” he said.
On the controversy over public broadcaster Doordarshan’s move to screen the film ‘Kerala Story’, Fadnavis said a film that has been duly censored could be exhibited in any public platform. BJP state treasurer E Krishnadas, OBC Morcha national secrertary Punchakkari Surendran, BJP state secretary J R Padmakumar and state committee member R Pradeep were also present.