BJP will come to power in Kerala, claims Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that the BJP will come to power in Kerala like it has tasted victory in the assembly elections in Northeastern states.

Addressing BJP supporters at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Modi said the BJP will continue to expand and Kerala will be next.

"I am confident that in the coming years, as it has happened in Nagaland and Meghalaya and Goa over the years, a BJP-led government will come to power in Kerala too," Modi said.

Kerala was the only non-BJP-ruled state that Modi mentioned specifically in his speech. He claimed that the people of Kerala are "witnessing how the Left and Congress strike alliances elsewhere while pretending to be rivals in the state".

BJP and allies have fared poorly in Kerala's assembly elections, winning just a seat to date. O Rajagopal's triumph in the 2016 Assembly Polls from the Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram is the BJP's sole success story in Kerala's legislative assembly.

Minorities don't fear BJP
Modi said propaganda to generate fear of the BJP among minorities was run for years by the opposition parties, "but the people of Goa and the northeast have proven those false".

"In Nagaland and Meghalaya where there is a majority Christian community, BJP has grown in strength."

The BJP-IPFT alliance returned to power in Tripura winning 33 of 60 seats in its assembly. In a similar verdict, the BJP-NDPP alliance took the Nagaland assembly too.