The northern Kerala city of Kozhikode will remain in the national focus for the next three days as BJP leaders from all over the country converge there for the party’s three-day national council meeting beginning Friday.
The proceedings of the meet got to a start on Wednesday with the processions carrying the flag, flag-post and torch of the meet converging on Kozhikode. The flag-post procession had started at memorial of former State party chief KG Marar at Payyambalam, Kannur. The flag procession was from the memorial of K Kelappaji in Thavanoor, Malappuram and the torch was brought from Pazhassi memorial in Manathavady, Wayanad.
State BJP leaders said on Wednesday that all arrangements for the conference had been completed. Final touches were being given on Wednesday to the conference venue with an area of 1,00,000 square feet at the Swapna Nagari grounds lying adjacent to the city and the stage for the public meet on the Kozhikode beach.
Around 2,000 delegates including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Union Ministers and party’s MPs and Chief Ministers will take part in the three-day meet. The national office-bearers and national executive of the party will hold meetings on Friday morning to take the final decision on the resolutions to be adopted at the meet.
Party president Amit Shah is expected to arrive in Kozhikode by Thursday noon and he will be in the city for five days. Shah will be accorded a grand reception at the Kozhikode airport in Karippur, over 20 kilometres away from the meet venue. Party leaders and workers will escort him in scores of vehicles to the city from the airport.
Prime Minister Modi, who will arrive in Kozhikode on Saturday afternoon, will address a public meeting at 5.30 PM that day. He will inaugurate the year-long birth centenary celebrations of former Jan Sangh chief Deendayal Upadhyaya on Sunday evening. It was in the national conclave of the Jan Sangh held in Kozhikode in 1967 that Upadhyaya was elected as its president.
A special programme will be held late Saturday evening to recall the Jan Sangh’s 1967 conference. The Prime Minister and the BJP president will take part in this programme. Modi will arrive at Swapna Nagari on Sunday morning for the BJP’s national council meeting. He will return to Delhi on Sunday night.
According to a senior State BJP leader, “This meet is of great importance for the party in the national as well as the State levels. Kerala is certain to witness huge changes in its political course after this. Similarly, it is important in the national perspective as it takes place at a time when the nation is facing the challenge of terror imported from across the border.”
Sources said national security, terror attack in Uri, provocations from the part of Pakistan and the Kashmir situation could become subjects of hot discussion in the meetings to be held in the course of the conference. They said all these issues could find place in the resolution to be adopted in the meet.
“What we see today is a situation totally different from the one that prevailed at the stage of discussions on holding the national council meeting in Kozhikode. The recent developments have been shocking and therefore the nation is looking towards the party for solid decisions. Quite naturally, this mood will reflect in the meeting,” said a top party leader.
The violence the CPI(M) has allegedly been perpetrating against BJP-RSS workers and property in the State, especially in Kannur district, is certain to come up for discussions at the meet. The BJP has already called for steps to end the Marxist attacks and an impartial probe by an independent agency into such incidents. The issue is most likely to figure in the political resolution to be adopted by the meet.