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Updated: Jun 25, 2019 10:36 IST

Former lawmaker from Kerala’s Kannur AP Abdullakutty, who was expelled from the Congress for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his party’s massive victory in the Lok Sabha election, has said he will formally join the BJP in a couple of days.

Abdullakutty met the Prime Minister and Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday.

“My meetings with both were fruitful. We discussed many things including the prevailing political situation in Kerala. Both welcomed me to the party and I will formally join the BJP within two days,” he said after the meeting, adding his new innings with the BJP is almost certain.

“Many educated people from the community feel that my entry will help bridge vacuum between the party and the Muslim community. I also feel we have to shed unnecessary reservations and fears vis-à-vis the BJP,” he said adding Muslims will have to concentrate more on development and not on petty issues.

“The PM said I had to pay a heavy price for speaking truth. And he congratulated me for sticking to my views. I am sure my entry will help improve the community’s ties with the party. I will work hard to remove mutual distrust,” he said.

Political observers said Abdullakutty’s entry will be an advantage to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is desperate to break the minority wall for poll dividends. Despite his “aya ram, gaya Ram” or turncoat image the “plain-speaking minority leader” will be an asset to the party, they added.

The Congress threw him out earlier in June after he said in a Facebook post that Prime Minister Modi won the Lok Sabha polls handsomely for the second time because he inculcated “enough Gandhian values in governance”. He had been sulking after he was denied a seat in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

After his expulsion from the Congress, the BJP’s leaders in Kerala had welcomed him to their party.

Kutty began his political career with the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the CPI(M), at a young age.

The party fielded him from Kannur Lok Sabha constituency in 1999 and he defeated Congress strongman Mullapally Ramachandran, the present Congress chief. He was called the “albutha kutty” or wonder kid for his giant killer status. In the 2004 election, he again emerged victorious from Kannur.

As he started airing his opinions publicly, the left party had to censure him on many occasions and the last nail came after he lauded the development model of Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister after visiting the western state.

He was soon expelled and the Congress admitted him readily. He became a legislator twice in the 2009 by-election and the 2011 assembly elections. In 2016, he lost the poll from the Thalassery assembly constituency.

Speculation is rife that he will be made a candidate from the Mancheswaram assembly constituency in north Kerala where a by-poll is due in six months.