KJ Alphons to take up Modi’s cause in the US

NEW DELHI: Former IAS officer K J Alphons, who was until recently a CPM-backed member of the Kerala assembly, has decided to take up the cause of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the US. Alphons said he would suggest to President Barack Obama during next month's national breakfast prayer meeting to invite Modi to the US for a dialogue on development. 

Alphons, a member of the BJP's national executive, is part of the growing chorus in favour of Modi within BJP, though he didn't spell out if the Gujarat chief minister should be BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014. 

Alphons is among several invitees to the 61st national breakfast prayer meeting to be held in Washington on February 7. An annual affair, the meeting is attended by the US president, members of the American Congress, diplomats and invitees from more than 130 countries to "share in the spirit of friendship and thanksgiving". 

Alphons said if he got the opportunity to have a word with Obama, "I will request him to start a dialogue with Narendra Modi as he is a role model for development". He said he would also request the US president to "invite Modi to the US". 

Alphons's political trajectory has been as controversial as his career as an IAS officer. He earned fame in Delhi as a demolition man, razing illegal constructions in the 1990s when he was posted with the Delhi Development Authority. However, he resigned from the IAS in 2006 and won as an MLA just a month later. He was a Left-backed independent candidate. 

In 2011, the then BJP chief Nitin Gadkari got Alphons into BJP.