Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 7 (ANI): Slamming the popular alliances Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the state that was known as the land of social revolution is now known for corruption, political violence and ill-governance.

"This land of Kerala has always been the land of social revolution. However, this land is known for corruption, political violence, and ill-governance today," said Shah while addressing the valedictory function of BJP's Kerala Vijay Yatra in Shangumugham.

He said Kerala was the first state to defeat illiteracy and develop tourism as an industry, but today, with UDF-LDF, it has turned into the "center-stage of political violence and corruption".

"When UDF comes, it does the Solar scam. When LDF comes, it does the Dollar scam. They're both competing in how corrupt they can be!" the Union Minister said.

Demanding public answers from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Shah raised questions about the gold smuggling case.

"Did the chief accused in the dollar and gold smuggling case work under you in your office? Did your department or government pay them a monthly salary of Rs 3 lakh? Did your Principal Secretary help the chief accused or not? Did you and your Principal Secretary take this woman at government cost on a foreign trip? Why did this accused woman continuously come to the CM's residence? What was going on? Did the CM office pressurize customs when the smuggled gold was found? If yes, why? Did you investigate in detail the attack on ED and Customs officers? An important person died under mysterious circumstances. Did you get that investigated?" asked the Minister and said the people of Kerala want to know answers to all these questions.

Talking about Kerala Vijaya Yatra, Shah said the 1,940 km long Yatra was started with the idea of transformation in Kerala. "With 62 large rallies and innumerable rural rallies, today it concludes in Trivandrum. From today, we start working on the mission of Aatmanirbhar Kerala," he said.

Praising the newly inducted member of the BJP, 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan, the Union Minister said, "Due to the development of Konkan railway, South India was connected to the rest of the country and development reached here. E Sreedharan Ji has played a key role in this journey! We all are happy that infrastructure maker 'Metro Man' has chosen BJP for 'Bharat Nirman'." (ANI)