At a time when relations between the state and Centre are strained over several issues, with the latest being the ban on cattle slaughter for sale, the BJP President Amit Shah will visit Kerala on Friday.

Kerala is spearheading the resistance against the Centre on the ban of cattle trade.

The visit of Amit Shah, who has engineered electoral victories for the party in many states, is viewed as an attempt to build up the party's vote base in the state.

BJP had won a seat for the first time in Kerala in the 2016 assembly elections. The BJP chief will meet community leaders and intellectuals in the state.

He will also meet leaders of Christian dioceses including Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar and Latin Catholic churches, reports Mathrubhumi online.

BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan has invited the Christian diocese heads for the meeting, the report says.

Shah will meet bishops in Kochi on Friday, asking them to build bridges with the minority community, which accounts for 18-20% of votes in the state, reports Manorama Online.

He is also scheduled to chair several party meetings apart from having interactions with community leaders. He will hold meetings with BJP allies during his visit.

Strengthening the BJP’s base and increasing vote share in the state is one of the declared agenda of Amit Shah.

In the recently held Malappuram Loksabha bye-elections, the party was not able to achieve its target of winning more than one lakh votes. The BJP managed only 65,662 votes in the election.

The party’s vote share declined whereas both the UDF and the LDF improved their vote share.