PM Modi flags LDF-UDF 'selfish politics' in poll-bound Kerala, presents NDA as 'A-team' in Palakkad rally | 5 updates

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a fierce attack at both the ruling LDF alliance and the Opposition's UDF alliance, calling them "two masks of selfish politics", and promising that the BJP would make inroads in the state this year.

Speaking at a rally in Fort Maidan, Palakkad, he attacked both sides of misusing funds from the Centre, the employment crises that sparked rising migration rates, and the rising political violence in Kerala.

Modi's Palakkad rally, which forms the first phase of the NDA's campaigning in the poll-bound state, will be followed by visits to Pala (in Kottayam) and Thiruvananthapuram, as well as the arrival of key alliance faces such as Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda.

The state is scheduled to go to the polls on April 9, with the votes to be counted on May 4.

Here are five major updates from the PM's visit to Palakkad:

1) Modi flagged Kerala's debt crisis, alleging that the state was crumbling under the weight of debt that had more than tripled to reach more than Rs 5 lakh crore.

"When the NDA government comes to power, this money will go into the pockets of our own people, and will be used for the development of the people of Keralam," he declared, noting that no new industrial projects had been started to employ people en masse.

2) The gloves really came off when PM Modi took an unusually specific jab at expelled Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil and councillor Prashob Valsan, who have been embroiled in controversies over alleged sexual misconduct.

Though he did not mention the two by name, he called them a "danger to the safety of women", and hit out at the national party for taking in leaders who he claimed should have been in a courtroom, rather than the Assembly.

3) Modi alleged that the LDF and UDF were peddling a propaganda in the state by calling the NDA alliance each other's "B-team".

"Communists say that Congress is the B-team of the BJP, and Congress says that the Communists are the B-team of the BJP," he noted, adding that his party was the "A-team".

4) The chaos in the Gulf was a major talking point in Modi's Palakkad rally, where he argued that the BJP-led NDA government was constantly in talks with various countries to ensure the safety of Indians—mostly those from Kerala—living in conflict zones.

In that regard, he hit out at the national party for issuing highly political statements related to the war in the Gulf, saying that such rhetoric could endanger the lives of thousands of Indians in the Middle East.

5) Modi expanded his rhetoric against the LDF and the UDF, citing examples of misgovernance in states ruled by the Left and Congress, and asserting that the people of Kerala were looking for an alternative to both fronts.

"NDA's target is to fulfil the dreams of the people of Keralam," he said, pointing out that it had provided five times more Budget allocation to Kerala than the Congress when it had been at the Centre.