On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to inaugurate infrastructure projects.

In Andhra Pradesh, Modi will inaugurate a new campus of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics in Sri Satyasai district’s Palasamudram. The event will be attended by Andhra Pradesh Governor S Abdul Nazeer and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Later in the day, Modi will also visit Kochi, where he will hold a road show. It’s his second visit to Kerala this month – on January 3, he addressed a gathering of two lakh women and conducted a kilometre-long road show in Thrissur to kick off the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign in the state.

During his two-day Kerala visit, Modi will review booth-level preparations and interact with local leaders for the polls, as reported by Shaju Philip. This is the first time that the PM is holding an event for booth-level workers in Kerala. It indicates that the BJP is actively attempting to strengthen its cadre as it looks to break its jinx in the southern state.

The party has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, which has swung between the Left and the Congress so far. The only time it won an Assembly seat was in 2016, but it lost this too to the CPI(M) in 2021.

Among the four Lok Sabha seats the party is targeting are Thrissur, where the BJP is likely to field actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, and Thiruvananthapuram, where the Congress’s Shashi Tharoor is likely to seek a fourth straight term. The party will also focus on Pathanamthitta in central Kerala the Attingal seat in Thiruvananthapuram district.

Aside from party events, Modi will on Wednesday inaugurate three major infrastructure projects worth more than Rs 4,000 crore at the Kochi shipyard.

AAP’s counter to BJP’s Ram temple focus

With a week to go for the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, a series of rituals are set to begin, starting with an “atonement ceremony” on Tuesday.

In Delhi, meanwhile the ruling Aam Aadmi Party will start recital programmes of ‘Sundar Kand’ – one of the chapters in the Ramayana devoted to Hanuman – across the Capital. The party said it would hold these recitals on the first Tuesday of every month.

“The Aam Aadmi Party is organising Sundar Kand recitals at many places in Delhi for the peace, happiness and progress of all. I will, along with my wife, join the devotees at a temple in Rohini for the Sundar Kand recital at 3pm. You all are invited to attend the recitals near your homes as per your convenience,” Delhi CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal wrote on X.

AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Sundar Kand recitation programme will be held in all Assembly constituencies and municipal wards on the first Tuesday of every month. Party MLAs, councillors and office bearers will take part in the programmes that will be held at over 2,600 places in the city.”

Sena dispute continues

A day after Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of the Shiv Sena moved the Supreme Court challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s order declaring the faction led by CM Eknath Shinde as the “real political party”, Thackeray is set to address a press conference in Mumbai on the verdict on Tuesday.

“Uddhav ji would address a first-of-its-kind open mega press conference on January 16 in Worli. Such a press conference has not happened in the history of Maharashtra,” said Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP in the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Notably, on Monday, Shinde’s Sena moved the Bombay High Court against the Speaker’s decision to not disqualify the Thackeray faction MLAs.

In the courts

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to deliver a verdict Tuesday on former Andhra Pradesh CM and Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s plea challenging the high court order that refused to quash the FIR against him in the Skill Development Corporation scam case.

Naidu was arrested in September last year for allegedly misappropriating funds from the Skill Development Corporation when he was the CM in 2015, causing a purported loss of Rs 371 crore to the state exchequer.

On Tuesday, a Delhi court will hear arguments on the bail application of one of the accused in the Parliament security breach case. On December 13, 2023, during the Winter Session of Parliament, two intruders had jumped in the Lok Sabha chamber and released canisters emitting coloured gas. A total of six accused are currently in police custody.

Protests in Parliament over the breach had led to the suspension of a record-high 146 Opposition MPs last month.

– With PTI inputs