BJP trying hard to woo Christians in Kerala

Political observers feel that the bishops' visit of Modi was intended to serve a message to the Congress that it cannot take its support granted.

Majority of the bishops in Kerala did not respond to the BJP’s call and gave the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi a miss when he came to the state on Sunday to kick off the party’s poll campaign.

The Christians are wooed by the state-level leaders of the party in their bid to build a bridge to the nearly six million community members.

Only two bishops of the Orthodox Church, which has only few pockets of influence in the state, responded to the BJP call.

One of the two bishops was in fact from Modi’s home turf of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The two did not give any indication of any shift in the political stance of the Orthodox Church, which traditionally supported the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

Thomas Mar Atanasius and Geevarghese Mar Yulios, Metropolitans of Chengannur and Ahmedabad dioceses of the Orthodox Church termed their visit of Modi at the Government guest house at Cochin strictly personal.

However, Mar Athanasius said he will be personally happy if Modi was elected as Prime Minister.

The Ahmedabad Metropolitan, who has been maintaining close ties with Modi, has been trying to take the Church to the BJP fold. Though the head of the Church had earlier praised Modi’s developmental initiatives in Gujarat, he sought to disassociate himself from meeting the Gujarat Chief Minister during his visit to the state.

Political observers feel that the visit was intended to serve a message to the Congress that it cannot take its support granted.

The Church has a following of 1.2 million and has been aggrieved with the Congress-led government for allegedly siding with the rival Jacobite faction in their pestering dispute over the division of churches and their properties.

Modi’s colleagues in the state had made frantic efforts to bring bishops from the three Catholic rites to Modi as they represent the majority of the Christians in Kerala.

They had claimed that a number of them would meet Modi at Cochin. However, they chose not to meet Modi even though they are angry with the UPA government over the Kasthurirangan report on Western Ghats.

The state leadership of the BJP has been trying to court the bishops as they play an important role in shaping the political opinion of the community.

The bishops used to make their electoral preferences known to the faithful through pastoral letters.

However, most bishops stopped this practice after the Church revised their perception of Communists as atheists. Some of them even openly adopted pro-Left stands during elections helping the Communists win seats in Christian belts.

The BJP tried to make inroads into the Christian belt by attracting influential Christians to its fold. After P C Thomas of the Kerala Congress, who helped the NDA led by the BJP to win a Lok Sabha seat in the state, left the coalition, the party has roped in former IAS officer Alphonse Kannanthanam to serve as the party’s majority mascot.

The BJP, which entered the electoral fray in the state in the eighties, has not been able to win any seat on its own in either the Assembly or Lok Sabha so far.

The party is trying to reach out to the minorities and consolidate its existing support base among Hindus to end the drought. The BJP is planning to focus on five Lok Sabha seats in the coming election.

Source: khaleejtimes.com