KASARGOD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not against inter-religious marriage but against inter-religious couples ending up with the Syria-based Islamic State (ISIS), said the party's state president K Surendran.
Terming that as 'love jihad', he said many mothers have complained against such marriages, where they end up losing their daughters.
Surendran -- who is contesting the assembly election from Konni segment in Pathanamthitta district and Manjeshwar in Kasaragod district -- was campaigning in Paivalike panchayat when TNIE caught up with him. He was visiting selected houses of Christians at Permude on Thursday.
Surendran said the issue of 'love jihad' was being raised not by the BJP but by Christian groups in Kerala. "They have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about it," he said and added that was why the BJP has taken it up.
At the launch of the BJP's campaign, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath taunted the Kerala government for not bringing in law against 'love jihad'.
Surendran said the BJP was not against the couples who get married but against the organised system of the ISIS which lured young interfaith couples to Syria, a reference to the Islamic terror organisation. "We do not blame the husband or the wife if they end up in Syria. There are organised ISIS groups in Kerala taking couples to Syria. We hold them responsible," he said.
Polling in Manjeshwar will not be on communal lines
Surendran, who lost by 89 votes to Muslim League's P B Abdul Razak in 2016, said the voting would not be on communal lines this time.
The BJP is wary of such polarisation because 53% of the voters in the constituency are Muslims.
But at least two BJP leaders and almost all UDF leaders said Surendran's entry into Manjeshwar would help consolidate minority votes in favour of the UDF because of the close fight of 2016.
The BJP state president said he was contesting from Manjeshwar because the 2016 election was stolen from him. He moved the high court alleging bogus voting by the IUML but could not prove his charge. "This time, the Christians and the Muslims will vote for the BJP," he said, without explaining how he would reach out to the two communities.
When asked about the vitriolic hate messages being spread by the rightwing ecosystem in social media, Surendran dismissed it saying there were no such messages or anti-Muslim violence in India. "It is a narrative spread by the Left-Jihadi nexus," he said.
'BJP candidates will benefit from Sabarimala protest'
Surendran said BJP candidates across the state would benefit from the Sabarimala protests.
He said he too would benefit from it in Konni.
When pointed out he came third in the byelection held in 2019, he said the dynamics of the bye-poll were different as the ruling party controlled the government machinery. "But I polled nearly 40,000 votes and the losing margin was thin," he said.
To be sure, he trailed by 14,313 votes to the winning LDF candidate and by nearly 4,000 votes to the UDF candidate.
Post elections, if the BJP performed reasonably well, many political parties and leaders now aligned with the UDF and the LDF would join the NDA, said Surendran. "When I said the NDA would come to power in Kerala if the BJP won 40 seats, it was not empty rhetorics," he said.
Dismisses helicopter jibes
The BJP president dismissed the memes and jibes against him for using a helicopter to campaign in Kerala.
He said he had to cover two constituencies at two ends of the state and also impart the responsibilities as the state president of the BJP. "The party's central leadership gave the helicopter because of the circumstances," he said.