Kottayam: Kerala BJP held a special meeting of Christian leaders with the aim of healing the wounds of attacks on the minority community in many places in the country, including Chhattisgarh, and gaining the trust of the churches as the state's local body elections are approaching and the assembly elections are due next year. The program, titled ‘Social Outreach Workshop’, was inaugurated by BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar. To questions related to this, his response was that the aim was to bring all Malayalis together and convey to them the idea of the BJP’s developed Kerala. The BJP president added that not only the said meeting, but also other meetings like Yuva Morcha and Mahila Morcha meetings were held. He also shared a post about the workshop on social media.
It is reported that five Christian leaders from each of the 30 organisation districts participated in the workshop held in Kottayam on Wednesday. State general secretaries Anoop Antony, Adv S Suresh and vice president Adv Shaun George were in charge of this.
Party sources admit that this is the first time in history that the state BJP has held a meeting on religious grounds. It is also noteworthy that the special meeting of Christian leaders was called while controversies related to the celebration of the Chathaya Dinam were raging within the party. The BJP hopes that keeping Christian church members on board can lead to a big breakthrough in the local body and assembly elections. Some Christian church organisations have also decided to make political interventions in the local body elections. The BJP also aims to get their support.
Although the workshop was intended to be called ‘Christian Outreach’, it was changed to ‘Social Outreach Workshop’ to avoid controversy. However, the PowerPoint presentations made at the workshop gave it away which said that ‘BJP Christian Outreach’ should be the name of the discussions. The Minority Morcha has also shared pictures and footage of the event on its official Facebook page with the title 'Christianity joins BJP to bring change in Kerala'.
The leaders made it clear in the meeting that there should be no actions or statements that hurt the sentiments of Christian churches. Believers will not vote for the BJP without the church's advice. Therefore, the workshop also suggested that activities should be designed to gain the trust of Christian churches.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar wrote on Facebook, "From now on, the BJP will contest elections not just to participate, but only to win. Only if the BJP wins and comes to power will the real development of Kerala be possible. It is not just providing basic facilities, but also development. Real development is about finding solutions to the every day problems of the common people. Only the BJP has the ability and determination to make this a reality."