Why PM Modi Honoured Expelled Congressman Acharya Pramod Krishnam

Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam who was recently expelled from the Congress for six years for praising PM Narendra Modi for the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony and criticising  party leadership for skipping the event, was honoured by PM Modi as he launched his Kalki Dham Temple in Sambhal, UP. Krishnam, believed to be close to Priyanka Vadra had been pushing for the Hindu cause in the Congress. He had done so at the 2022 Udaipur Chintan Shivir but was outshouted by party leaders from Kerala. Recalling his recent interaction with Krishnam, Modi said that he had known him only as a political personality but recently came to know about his 18-year old struggle to build the temple. PM Modi used Krishnam’s stated inability to offer him anything to take a jibe at the recent Supreme Court on electoral bonds. He said “Today, If Sudama gave rice to Krishna, the Supreme Court would dub it as corruption. Acharya Pramod ji, it is good that you did not give me anything. In today’s era, if Sudama would give rice to Shri Krishna, a PIL would be filed in the SC and the judgment would come that something was given to Lord Krishna in corruption”. Why did PM Modi give so much time and attention to Krishnam? Well, in its quest for winning all the seats in UP, the BJP is not sparing any effort. Besides the Kalki temple, Krishnam is of political value too; he had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow on a Congress ticket but lost. He, however, garnered an impressive 1.8 lakh votes. In 2014, he unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from UP’s Sambhal — a SP stronghold.