Kerala BJP scrambles to mend bridges with Church leaders after nuns’ arrest in Chhattisgarh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala on Thursday (July 31, 2025) appeared to scramble to mend bridges with Church leaders after the arrest of two Keralite nuns in Chhattisgarh on “questionable charges” of forced conversion and human trafficking threatened to strain relations and undermine the party’s ambitious outreach to the electorally significant Christian community ahead of the local body polls later this year and the Assembly elections in 2026.

BJP State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar will likely reach Kochi late on Thursday to apprise top prelates of the attempts taken by the party in conjunction with its counterparts in New Delhi and Chhattisgarh to secure the early release of the reportedly ailing nuns, both senior citizens. 

The nuns, Vandana Francis and Preetha Mary, of the order of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), hailing from Kannur and Ernakulam, respectively, are currently under judicial remand in reportedly harsh conditions in Durg Central Prison after a district sessions court recused from hearing their bail plea on Wednesday, citing a lack of jurisdiction. The court maintained that the human trafficking section in the first information report (FIR) precluded the Bench from hearing the case.

The alleged involvement of Bajrang Dal, a Sangh Parivar affiliate and youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, in the arrests has put the BJP on the defensive in Kerala. 

Moreover, the silence of Union Minister Suresh Gopi, who won from the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency where Christians form a decisive electoral bloc, had drawn criticism from the ruling front and the Opposition in Kerala and seemed not to have helped the BJP’s ambitions to make further inroads into the minority community’s strongholds in central Kerala. 

Notably, the Catholic Bishops’ Council of India organised a mammoth march to the Kerala Raj Bhavan on Wednesday to protest against the arrests. At least three prelates, including Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, led the march by hundreds of members of the laity.

Union Minister of State for Fisheries George Kurian said legacy churches in Chhattisgarh were not into proselytism and conversion to Christianity as alleged. He said some “new generations” were engaged in the activity, which the State law deemed unlawful.

He accused the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] of attempting to make political capital out of the nuns’ incarceration.

“The BJP is trying hard to get justice for the nuns. The Congress and the CPI(M) want them to remain in jail, and their public posturing and controversial statements in Chhattisgarh were an attempt to throw a spanner in the works of the BJP’s efforts to secure the sisters’ early release. Not one Congress MP from Chhattisgarh has echoed the accusations made by Congress leaders from Kerala in Parliament,” he added. 

Mr. Chandrasekhar dubbed the Congress and CPI(M) delegations meeting the nuns in Durg Central prison as “theatrics and opportunist politics.”