Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to conclude his two-day tour of Kerala Wednesday by inaugurating projects worth Rs 4,000 crore in the port city of Kochi and addressing the BJP’s booth-level workers.

On Tuesday, the first day of his second visit to Kerala in two weeks, PM Modi attended a road show in Kochi from the Maharajas College ground to the Ernakulam government guest house. An estimated 50,000 BJP workers participated in the road show, according to a party official.

On Wednesday, the PM is set to inaugurate three projects – the New Dry Dock, the International Ship Repair Facility of Cochin Shipyard Limited, and the LPG Import Terminal of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. Later in the day, he is also expected to address a party meeting of around 6,000 in-charges of ‘shakti kendras’, each comprising two to three booth-level areas, at Marine Drive.

During the trip, Modi will also visit Guruvayur, where he will offer prayers at the Lord Krishna temple and attend the wedding of actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi’s daughter.

With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner and the BJP only a minor player in Kerala politics, Modi’s visits signal the party’s push to carve out a political space for itself in a state dominated by the Left and the Congress. For the parliamentary elections, the BJP is expected to focus its attention on a handful of seats, including Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. The party is yet to win a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala.

Jagannath Temple project inauguration

As preparations and rituals ahead of the Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya on January 22 continue, with a procession of the idol of Ram Lalla within the temple compound to be held on Wednesday, another temple project in Odisha is getting a grand inauguration.

On Wednesday, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the Rs 800-crore “Shree Mandira Parikrama Prakalpa” or the Jagannath Temple Heritage Corridor in Puri, as reported by Sujit Bisoyi.

The project, a 75-metre free passage built around the outer walls (Meghanada Pacheri) of the shrine, is aimed to ensure security to the temple and provide basic civic amenities to the devotees. The project is one component of a larger initiative worth over Rs 4,000 crore to transform Puri into a world heritage city, an official said.

But the Opposition parties BJP and Congress have criticised the project’s inauguration, calling it a “political event” of the BJD ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Odisha Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Narasingha Mishra said he would boycott the inauguration event. “As the BJP is using the Ram temple in Ayodhya for political gains, the BJD here is using the Heritage Corridor project for electoral gains. The government is using the public exchequer to further the ruling BJD’s electoral prospects,” he charged.

State BJP president Manmohan Samal said Lord Jagannath does not belong to any particular political party. “The BJD has been using the Lord for its political benefits. The inauguration event is purely a party programme,” he said.

Congress, Sena (UBT) yatras

The Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra enters its final day in Nagaland on Wednesday. Led by Rahul Gandhi, it is set to make several stops, including for his public address in the Mokokchung district, before entering Assam on Thursday.

On Tuesday, at a press conference outside Kohima, Rahul spoke about the Ram Temple consecration, saying it was designed “around Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS” that gave it an “electoral” and “political” flavour, as reported by Manoj C G.

In Haryana, two days after the Congress party launched the “Ghar-Ghar Congress, Har-Ghar Congress” campaign to “expose the failures” of the CM Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP government, Congress general secretary Kumari Selja said the party would also launch a “Jansandesh Yatra”, which will cover all 10 Lok Sabha constituencies, from Hisar on Wednesday.

“During the Jansandesh Yatra, information about the welfare schemes of the Congress will be given while the anti-people policies of the BJP will be exposed,” she said.

In Maharashtra, as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction reels from the setback of Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s order declaring the Sena group led by CM Eknath Shinde as the “real political party”, the Uddhav Sena is set to launch a series of three-day “Stree Shakti Samvad Yatras” to reach out to women voters in every Lok Sabha constituency beginning in Vidarbha on Wednesday. The programme will run until February-end.

– With PTI inputs