In a whirlwind election campaign that saw him heli-hopping from Kochi to Kunnamkulam and back to Kochi from where he flew down to Kattakkada in southern Kerala on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made startling disclosure.

“Kerala has emerged as the narcotics capital of South India and the State is under the shackles of a drug mafia. Politicians ruling the State are offering patronage to these drug syndicates while campuses in the State have become killing fields where students are murdered while the law enforcing agencies look the other way,” said the Prime Minister.

He also disclosed that both the Congress and the CPI(M) were hands-in-glove with banned extremist outfits. “These organisations themselves have declared their alliance with these parties,” pointed out Modi.

Modi said there was no difference between the Congress and the Communists except in their names. “When they are in Kerala, they act as if they are enemies. Once they cross the border and enter Tamil Nadu, both these parties are friends and allies. They are cheating the public of Kerala,” charged the Prime Minister.

He pointed out that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has not uttered anything against the cooperative bank scam in Kerala in which the CPI(M) embezzled hundreds of crores of rupees belonging to the poor people.  

Modi promised the electors of Kerala that his Government would make the State a hub of heritage tourism. He also made an irresistible offer to all homemakers’ liberal financial assistance to arrange homestay facilities for promoting tourism.

A massive crowd has turned up at Kunnamkulam and Kattakkada to greet the Prime Minister and listen to him. Waxing eloquence on the natural beauty and salubriousness of the State’s climate, Modi said he is at a loss to understand why the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF kept Kerala as an underdeveloped region despite the fact that nature has been very kin to the State.

Explaining the salient points in the election manifesto released by the BJP on Sunday, which happened to be the Vishu Day, the Prime Minister told the gathering that what they have witnessed in the ten years was just a trailer while the mega action is to be expected in the next tenure of the NDA Government.

The Prime Minister said the bullet train connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai will become a reality in the next few months.

“Once Ahmedabad is linked with Mumbai through the high speed bullet train, we will launch the works to link the North, East and South with bullet trains and this will see India making a quantum jump in infrastructure development. Works are in full swing to complete highways, expressways and super express highways which would connect the entire length and breadth of the country. The parties that ruled the State all these years failed to exploit the tourism potential of Kerala,” said Modi.

He came down heavily on the CPI(M) and Congress Governments for their callousness towards the needs of the common man. “The Communists have made Kerala a quagmire of corruption and nepotism. Though the Central Government offered 3.6 million water connections to the State, the CPI(M) was not interested in implementing the scheme, Now, the people of Kerala are struggling to get drinking water. The Central Government is providing free ration to 1.5 crore people in the State and this would be continued for the next five years. What the LDF and the UDF were doing was to retard the progress of the State. Wherever the LDF was in power, (West Bengal and Tripura) there is nothing left and they have done nothing right,” said the Prime Minister.

Giving enough indications that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members were in for major trouble in connection with the Cooperative Bank scam and the sand mining scam, Modi said whatever money swindled by the Marxist leaders from the cooperative banks would be returned to the poor and middle class people who had invested the hard earned money with these banks.

“The cooperative bank scam is being investigated and we will not allow the misappropriation of the poor account holders’ cash,” said the Prime Minister.