Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a roadshow at Palakkad in Kerala on Tuesday, marking the continuation of BJP's South outreach programme. Modi has also a rally planned in Tamil Nadu's Salem later in the evening, which will see the party's alliance party leaders, including PMK founder S Ramadoss, attending it.
Modi has been in South India for the last few days as part of BJP's 'Mission 400' in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Prime Minister has already made over six visits to Tamil Nadu when he flew down to Coimbatore on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Congress hit out at the Prime Minister's south push, stating that "he has historically paid little attention to the state."
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh questioned the Prime Minister ahead of his visit to Tamil Nadu's Salem and Kerala's Palakkad on Tuesday. "The prime minister is visiting Salem, Tamil Nadu and Palakkad, Kerala today. Some important questions that he must address: While the prime minister has been visiting Tamil Nadu frequently in the last few weeks, he has historically paid little attention to the state," Ramesh said.
"For instance, he did not set foot there during the Cyclone Michaung crisis in December 2023," he claimed, adding that the state had to repeatedly request funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction after the cyclone.
"During Prime Minister Modi's visit to Salem, he will hopefully notice the numerous textile factories that have either shut down and disposed of machinery or reduced working hours for labourers," he said and accused Modi of "single-handedly destroyed India's MSME manufacturing capacities with demonetisation, GST, and the unplanned COVID-19 lockdown."
Ramesh also hit out at PM's Kerala visits, questioning whether he would apologise to the people of Kerala for his misleading statements on the state. "Kerala is the state that the prime minister had infamously compared to Somalia. Kerala's performance on development indicators has been consistently better than all Indian states. Will the prime minister finally apologise to the people of Kerala for his misleading commentary on the state," he asked.
Meanwhile, on his sixth visit to Kerala in three months, the Prime Minister held a road show in Palakkad. The PM's cavalcade, with Modi standing on an open roof vehicle heavily decorated with flowers, commenced the roadshow at around 10.45 am from Kottamaidan Anchuvilakku and proceeded towards the Head Post Office in the town.
Thousands of people, including BJP supporters with flowers, garlands, party flags, and placards of Modi and wearing party hats, lined both sides of the one-km roadshow route.
Modi visited Kerala's Pathanamthitta town on March 15, where he rallied support for NDA candidates contesting in the southern Kerala constituencies. The Prime Minister had said that "The Lotus is going to bloom in Kerala" in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and attacked the ruling Left and the opposition Congress-led UDF, alleging that the people of the state have endured hardship under governments plagued by corruption and incompetence.
