Thiruvananthapuram: A little over a fortnight after the Lok Sabha poll results brought the Bharatiya Janata Party to power with an enhanced majority and left the Congress party in the doldrums once more, the two men who faced off in the election, prime minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, are in Kerala over the weekend on different missions.
One of Modi’s first priorities was to offer prayers at the famed Guruvayur temple, complete with a tulabharam (making an offering equal to one’s own weight) with lotus flowers, while Rahul went around the Wayanad constituency, sipping tea at the odd tea shop and assuring people that he would now be the “voice of Wayanad in Parliament”.
In contrast, Modi’s visit to the iconic temple was in line with his party’s strategy of taking the faithful into confidence. Modi is the fourth prime minister after Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao to pray at the Guruvayur temple.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front had scored a scintillating win in the Kerala, bagging 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats. Of the 52 MPs that the Congress now boasts of across the country, as many as 15 are from Kerala, including the party president who represents the Wayanad constituency.
While the BJP failed yet again to win a parliament seat from Kerala, it bagged a healthy 15 per cent of the votes in the state, pointing to a strong base for the party in Kerala which is expected to grow and translate into assembly and parliament members in future.
Emerging from the temple visit, Modi said he had prayed for the whole nation, adding that “Varanasi (his constituency) and Kerala are alike for me”.
He [Rahul Gandhi] said he would return to Wayanad as prime minister, but has come with the prime minister.
The prime minister assured Keralites that the federal government would assist the state in dealing with the Nipah virus outbreak, but said he was pained that the Kerala government had opted not to join the Ayushman health care scheme of the federal government.
Rahul began his innings as an MP by reaching the local facilitation centre at the district collectorate where he accepted 20 petitions from the local residents. “Though I am a Congress MP, people from all parties have voted for me and my doors are open to everyone in Wayanad,” the Congress president said.
On social media, however, the Congress leader was lampooned. “He said he would return to Wayanad as prime minister, but has come with the prime minister,” said one commentator, alluding to Rahul and Modi visiting the state on the same day.
