People of Kerala are waiting to bring about a change in the state as they see a "role model government" in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration at the Centre, Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said today.
"People of the state want development. They witness a role model government in the form of Modi's administration at the Centre. People are waiting to bring about a change here too," he told a press conference here.
"I find a favourable atmosphere for BJP and NDA in assembly polls here. People are fed up with the five years of UDF government's corruption and politics of appeasement," he said. He alleged that development has come to a standstill during UDF rule and the Congress government "is mired in corruption. Right from the Chief Minister, ministers and legislators, corruption charges are against everyone." "Kerala people are also disgusted with the CPI-M and LDF which is drowning in ideological confusion," Nadda said, adding, left parties joined hands with Congress in West Bengal while fighting against each other in Kerala "which shows that there is a tacit understanding between the parties here." "Kerala people want to come out of politics of violence followed by the CPI-M for the past 30 or 40 years." "Recent utterances by UDF and LDF leaders show that BJP (and NDA) is a serious contender in the assembly elections here. Despite the tacit understanding between the two fronts, NDA will win," Nadda claimed.
"I appeal to the people of the state, through this meet, to vote for a change. Development would be possible only with the NDA agenda," he said.
Accusing the Congress government in the state of being "inefficient", the BJP leader said "in the last five years of UDF rule, rubber prices have gone down, coir industries are facing troubles, people are abandoning agriculture, industrial growth shows a downward trend and there is no congenial atmosphere prevailing in the state for growth." Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has allotted Rs 45,000 crore for roads and infrastructure development in Kerala. But the state government did not provide the land, he claimed.
Later, answering a question on the brutal rape and murder
of a Dalit law student, the Union minister said the case is an example on how law and order is being maintained here and how political complacency has crept into the administration during the periods of successive UDF and LDF regimes.
"It is a classic example of inaction. Action was taken only after the matter was raised in Parliament," he said. He parried a question on the National Eligibility Entrance Test, saying "it would then be a health minister's press conference. I am here to campaign for the NDA."
On his party's future in the state, Nadda said "we are coming up in a big way. The speeches of Congress and CPI-M leaders is a testimony to that.
