In Kerala after securing BJP mayor in TVM, PM Modi delivers 'softest' ever election speech

It was a transformed Prime Minister Narendra Modi who came down to Thiruvananthapuram on Friday to celebrate the BJP's historic win in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and kick off the party's 2026 Assembly election campaign.

There was no 'Modi ki Sarkar' or 'Every vote for BJP is a vote for Modi' kind of presidential-style self-glorifying remarks that defined the Prime Minister's earlier speeches in Kerala. The Union government was always referred to in his speech as the "NDA government". 

The old habit, however, did surface once on Friday. This was when the PM said that if the BJP came to power in Kerala, the Sabarimala gold theft would be thoroughly probed and all the accused would be thrown in jail. "This is Modi's guarantee," he said, an odd instance of auto-reference on the day. He also repeated the promise that every penny stolen from the cooperative bank accounts by the communists would be returned. There was no 'Modi guarantee' though.

There were no personal attacks either, against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan or against his favourite punching bag, the Gandhi family. A jab at Sonia Gandhi for hosting Sabarimala gold theft accused Unnikrishnan Potty at her residence was expected by many BJP workers who had gathered at Putharikkandam Maidan. However, it looked like the PM had left his sarcasm back in Delhi.

In January 2024, while he was in Thrissur for the Lok Sabha campaign, Modi's innuendo had badly unsettled the Chief Minister. "Everyone knows the office that formed the nucleus of gold smuggling in Kerala," he had said, a clear reference to the CM's Office. A month later he came to Thiruvananthapuram and spiked his vitriol with even more sting. "The communists, like the Congress, are interested only in the well-being of one family," the PM said and no one had to scratch the head to comprehend which family he had in his cross hairs. 

This time too, like in earlier occasions, he attacked both the LDF and the UDF. He repeated that both fronts were corrupt and their corruption had stood in the way of Kerala's development. There was also his oft stated assertion that the UDF and the LDF, by  taking turns at power every five years, had each other's back. By Modi's oratorical standards, this was not just repetitive but bland.

What made Modi's speeches interesting were the mischievous acronyms that he would coin for political opponents. Once in Thiruvananthapuram, he said that the Congress and the communists were always at each other's neck but outside Kerala he said they were "BFF" (Best Friends Forever).

This said, the PM did introduce a new abbreviation. "MMC". ("Muslim-Leagy Maovady Congress" is how Modi expanded it.)

About Congress, he said: "They are greater communists than Maoists and more communal than the Muslim League. So you have to be careful of the Congress. These Muslim- Leagy Maovady Congress people have made Kerala their communal lab. We should free Kerala from the Congress-Muslim League agenda," the PM said. 

This mention of the Muslim League also hinted at the PM's slight disconnect with his party unit in Kerala. To evoke Muslim extremism, the Kerala unit invokes Jamaat-e-Islami and not the League. This is how BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar sought to frame appeasement politics in his speech that was delivered just before the PM's: "Why is the Congress and the CPM encouraging the growth of Jamaat and SDPI? Is it good for our land."

The Kerala unit uses Jamaat and SDPI in its political rhetoric because these two organisations can be liberally attached to both the opposing fronts. The League, on the other hand, is a UDF ally and is widely understood in Kerala as moderate in its views. 

Despite the politically loaded statements, the Prime Minister sounded more emotional than triumphant during his first visit to Kerala after the BJP wrested the largest Corporation in Kerala.

Right at the start of his speech, he responded impromptu to a boy who had been standing on top of his chair holding aloft with stretched hands a sketch of the Prime Minister. "Aren't you tired child," he asked with grandfatherly concern. "Write down your address at the back of the paper. I will write you a letter," the PM said and asked his guards to collect the sketch and the house address of the boy.

"Wherever I travel children express their love in various ways, through paintings and even theatre performances. But there are people who make reels to make fun of these natural demonstrations of love. Let them go ahead and make their reels but the love people shower on me is considerably greater than these insults," Modi said.

Modi even seemed genuinely humbled by the victory in Thiruvananthapuram. He bowed before the BJP workers thrice before beginning his speech. Before arriving to address the BJP workers, the PM inaugurated a slew of development and welfare schemes. Three Amrit Bharat trains connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai (Tambaram), Hyderabad (Charlappalli) and a third Amrit Bharat train that will pass through Thiruvananthapuram from Nagercoil on its way to Mangalore were dedicated to the nation.

The PM also launched the Prime Minister Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Credit Card, marking the next phase of financial inclusion for street vendors. The PM SVANidhi is a special micro-credit facility that offers collateral-free working capital loans up to ₹10,000 for a one-year tenure. 

The Prime Minister also began the disbursement of the PM SVANidhi loans. There will be one lakh beneficiaries. Foundation stones were also laid for the CSIR-NIIST Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Hub and a state-of-the-art radiosurgery centre at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology. The PM also inaugurated a new head post office at Poojappura on the occasion.