Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday targeted the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government in the state and urged the communist leaders to shed their silence on the alleged Life Mission scam.
Mr Shah, while addressing a BJP rally marking the launch of the saffron party's election campaign for the 2024 Parliamentary elections, asked the people of Kerala to give a chance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We will make India and Kerala safe and developed," Mr Shah said.
Mr Shah urged CM Vijayan to break his silence over the alleged Life Mission scam and claimed that the people of Kerala will force the communists to answer about the gold smuggling scam in the parliamentary elections.
"The communists are immersed in the Life Mission corruption. The Chief Minister's former Principal Secretary, M Sivasankar, was arrested in this case. I urge the chief minister to answer the people on that matter," Shah said.
Referring to the government action against the Popular Front of India, the Union Home Minister said the outfit has been completely banned in the country and thus helped Kerala to get rid of violence.
"Neither the Congress nor the Communists welcomed this move," Shah said.
The union minister attacked the Congress and said they joined hands with the Communist party in Tripura but here they are fighting each other.
"Senior Congress leaders are attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who raised the image of the country across the world. I would like to tell Rahul Gandhi that he can attack Modi ji as much as he wants or throw as much dirt at him, let me assure you, the lotus will continue to bloom," Shah said.
The BJP leader claimed that the Narendra Modi government has allotted over Rs 1,15,000 crore for projects in Kerala and asked the Communists and the Congress to tell people in Kerala "what they did with that money".
Shah also attacked the parties over the recent Brahmapuram Waste Plant fire and said both the parties will do no good to the state.
"It's not possible for the Communists or the Congress to develop Kerala. A fire broke out here on March 2. Until now, they are unable to extinguish it. What good can they do to Kerala?," Shah asked.
He said the people of Kerala, for a long time, have given opportunity to the Congress and Communists to rule the state.
"Communists have been rejected by the world and the country has rejected the Congress party...Kerala is passionate about bringing change under the leadership of Narendra Modi," Shah said.
He said Kerala's public debt has exceeded Rs 3.40 lakh crore and the Finance Minister of the state has acknowledged the financial crisis.
He also listed out the projects of the Union Government and said Rs 1,950 crore has been allocated for the second phase of Kochi Metro and Rs 773 crore have been spent for two Smart cities.
Mr Shah paid floral tributes to 'Sakthan Thampuran' at his memorial here before attending the rally.
Shakthan Thampuran, the ruler of erstwhile kingdom of Cochin was the architect of the modern Thrissur city.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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