BJP president Amit Shah is expected to take a walk down the blood-stained streets of Pinarayi, CPI(M) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s native village, and other areas of Kannur, known in the awkward sobriquet as Kerala’s political killing fields where scores of lives have been lost in Marxist violence in the past five decades.
Pinarayi earned a significant spot in the map of violence of Kannur district on October 12 last year after a CPI(M) killer gang brutally hacked to death 27-year-old truck driver C Ramith, a BJP-RSS worker, in front of his house, which was just a few hundred meters away from Vijayan’s house.
Shah’s walk through Pinarayi is likely to take place on September 9 as part of the BJP’s 17-day all-Kerala march, Jana Raksha Yatra, to be captained by State party president Kummanam Rajasekharan. According to State BJP leaders, their national chief will flag off the march and participate in it in the first three days when it will cover Kannur and the concluding phase.
The Jana Raksha Yatra being taken out to propagate the party’s messages against the alleged Marxist and Jihadi terror and about the land encroachments and religious conversions (into Islam) which, according to the party, are rampant in Kerala will begin at Payyannur in Kannur district on September 7 and conclude at State capital Thiruvananthapuram on September 23.
The Yatra is also expected to set in motion the efforts for ensuring the maximum possible contribution from the State to attaining the goals set by the party’s Mission 350-Plus for the next general election. State leaders are still reluctant to make any open claim about their hopes for 2019 polls but some say the party can win a minimum of five lok Sabha seats from Kerala.
Shah may join the march on the concluding day and move with it on foot from Sreekaryam in Thiruvananthapuram where an RSS Karyawah, Rajesh, was brutally hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang on July 29. The party chief will also address the rally to be held at the conclusion of the Yatra at the Putharikkandam grounds in the capital on September 23.
“No other State in the country is witnessing Marxist terror in a measure as Kerala does. Similar is the case of Jihadi terror. Kerala has the highest number of youths getting hooked to Jihadi outfits. Jihadis’ activities are most rampant in CPI(M) strongholds. We want to tell the people everything about this,” said a top State leader of the BJP.
BJP leaders are asking why the CPI(M)-led lDF Government is reluctant to constitute an anti-terrorism squad within the Kerala Police force despite repeated instructions from the Centre and are interpreting it as a sign of the left’s soft approach to terror outfits. The Yatra will be a foot march in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram districts and vehicles will be used to cover the remaining stretches.
According to the BJP leadership, Payyannur was selected as the starting point of the march particularly because that is the only place in the country with a political refugee camp, which was set up following a spurt in incidents of violence against BJP-RSS leaders and workers. Even this camp was attacked by the Marxists, they claim.
Former State BJP president V Muraleedharan will be the coordinator of the Yatra and State general secretaries AN Radhakrishnan, K Surendran and MT Ramesh will be responsible for the preparations for and conduct of the march in the northern, central and southern regions of the State respectively.
Apart from top national leaders and Central Ministers, almost all the BJP Chief Ministers in the country and deputy Chief Ministers of the party in five States would accompany the march at different stages, State leaders said.