Pathanamthitta: The (BJP) has started avidly wooing various church denominations in Kerala ahead of the Assembly polls.
Series of meetings held between the Union Ministers, including the Prime Minister, with church leaders in Kerala amply suggested the BJP’s game-plan in bridging the gap between the party and the church.
‘Building trust’
BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan said the party stood for building mutual trust and co-operation with churches.
The meeting between Archbishop Mar George Alencharry of the Syro Malabar Church and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi on December 14 and the latter’s statement that the ‘‘BJP-led third front will change Kerala’’ is viewed as a move to woo Christians closer to the NDA.
Close on the heels of Mr. Modi’s visit, various other Central Ministers too started calling on bishops in Kerala. Union Minister for Law D.V. Sadananda Gowda called on Mar Alencherry on Saturday. Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Uma Bharati, and Sushma Swaraj will be meeting various church heads in the coming days.
Mr. Rajasekharan told The Hindu that the BJP was getting closer to the church with a clear-cut action plan in the larger interest of the State. Mr. Rajasekharan said he had been meeting various church leaders over the past one month.
Mar Thoma Metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma had inaugurated a public reception to Mr. Rajasekharan at Aranmula recently. Addressing the meeting, the Metropolitan said: ‘‘We too have the lotus and the oil lamp, the symbols of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, as symbols placed on our church logo. This is suggestive of the emerging political scenario in which the churches in Kerala softening their hitherto anti-BJP stance.
Mr. Rajasekharan said the Mar Thoma Metropolitan had invited him to the Pulatheen Bishop’s House in Thiruvalla for a personal talk and he would be meeting the Metropolitan soon.