Addressing the valedictory function of the BJP’s Kerala Vijay Yatra in Shangumugham, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday slammed the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) for indulging in scams. The Home Minister said Kerala is now “known for corruption, political violence and ill-governance today”.
Highlighting that Kerala was the first state to defeat illiteracy and develop tourism as an industry, Amit Shah said the state has turned into the “center-stage of political violence and corruption” today courtesy the popular UDF and LDF alliance.
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“When UDF comes, it does the solar scam. When LDF comes, it does the dollar scam. They are both competing in how corrupt they can be,” he added.
The Union Minister also cornered Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while highlighting the gold smuggling case.
“Did the chief accused in the dollar and gold smuggling casework under you in your office? Did your department or government pay them a monthly salary of Rs 3 lakh? Did your Principal Secretary help the chief accused or not? Did you and your Principal Secretary take this woman at government cost on a foreign trip? Why did this accused woman continuously come to the CM's residence? What was going on? Did the CM office pressurize customs when the smuggled gold was found? If yes, why?” Amit Shah asked.
“Did you investigate in detail the attack on ED and Customs officers? An important person died under mysterious circumstances. Did you get that investigated?” he added stating the people of Kerala want answers to all these questions.
Talking about the BJP’ Kerala Vijaya Yatra, the Union Home Minister said the 1,940 km long yatra was aimed at bringing transformation in Kerala.
“With 62 large rallies and innumerable rural rallies, today it concludes in Trivandrum. From today, we start working on the mission of Aatmanirbhar Kerala,” he added.
Amt Shah also praised E. Sreedharan, popularly known as the “Metro Man”, who recently joined the BJP.
“Due to the development of Konkan railway, South India was connected to the rest of the country, and development reached here. E. Sreedharan ji has played a key role in this journey. We all are happy that infrastructure maker ‘Metro Man’ has chosen the BJP for ‘Bharat Nirman’,” he said.
The Union Home Minister’s outburst against the LDF and UDF comes ahead of the assembly polls in Kerala, which votes in a single phase on April 6.
The results will be declared on May 16 as the tenure of the current Kerala legislative assembly will come to an end on June 1.