After Congress President-elect Rahul Gandhi visited villages hit by Cyclone Ockhi and commiserated with the families of fisherfolk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also said to visit Kerala and Tamil Nadu soon, an official said.
Putting an end to political criticism, Modi was expected to visit the southern districts of these states, possibly on Monday or Tuesday. However, the exact date was not known.
According to informed sources, he will visit two fishing villages in Thiruvananthapuram and one in Kanyakumari.
Kerala government officials have said that the official intimation about Modi's visit has come.
It was on November 30 that Ockhi struck and it has left more than 70 fishermen from the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam dead, while more than 250 of them are yet to be traced.
The Kerala government has blamed the Centre and the weather monitoring organisations for not properly conveying the arrival of Ockhi.
The weather officials in their turn have said that right from November 28 at regular intervals, they had alerted the Kerala government of what was in store.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come under severe attack as despite being in the capital city, he has failed to travel 10 km to visit the grieving fishermen families.
While Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman flew down and visited these villages, the Congress party leadership blamed Modi for not arriving to be with the families.
On Thursday, Gandhi spent time with fishermen both in Thiruvananthapuram and at Kanyakumari.
He promised them that his party will take up their issues in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament and would also put pressure on the central and state governments to ensure they get adequate relief.
"Normally, I would have been happy coming here, but I am not in the present circumstances. Whatever help we can provide to you, we will. We are in the Opposition both at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu. We will put pressure on both the governments to do the needful for the families who have lost their bread earners," he told the women, who poured out their grief to him in Kanyakumari.
(With IANS inputs)