Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the BJP was poised to come to power in Kerala as the Communist-led state suffered from three governance-related issues: corruption, weak law and order, and development lethargy.

"Kerala that has seen the alternate rule of UDF and LDF is riddled with scams. In fact, the gold smuggling scam had spread its tentacles right up to the Chief Minister's Office. Then there is the cooperative scam, Exalogic scam and many other scams. I feel the people are not happy with the state of things," Shah said at the inaugural session of Manorama News Conclave 2025 held at the Lulu Bolgatty International Convention Centre in Kochi.

Shah said law and order in Kerala had been compromised for votes and also for the benefit of the cadre. He said the Popular Front of India (PFI) branched out from Kerala to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat. "Why was its activities not banned," Shah asked. "Had it not been for the Narendra Modi government, the PFI would still have not been banned," he said, while responding to questions on the topic ‘India: Pace & Progress'.

Shah also flagged a Kerala paradox. "Kerala had the highest literacy rate but it also had the highest unemployment," he said. Shah said a certain lethargy had crept into Kerala's development ethos. "Kerala has the potential to develop IT-based, semiconductor-based, and knowledge-based industries. But these have not been explored," the home minister said.

He attributed this to the automatic revenues from tourism and foreign remittances. He also blamed the LDF government's priorities. "They don't work for the people. They work only for the cadre," he said.

To prove his point that the CPM has a cadre-focused strategy, Shah spoke of the wayward spending of the disaster relief funds provided by the Centre. "The Centre had given ₹5,100 crore as disaster relief since 2014, as opposed to the ₹1,342 crore during the UPA regime, but none of this is felt, as the money flows to the cadre," Shah alleged.

In contrast, the Home Minister said that the BJP's development model is based on appeasement-less, caste-less politics of performance. "This will increase our support base in Kerala," he said.

Shah predicted that the BJP would corner 25% votes in the coming local body polls. "And in the ensuing Assembly polls, Kerala will not have to depend on any of the other two fronts," he said.