“I am asking CM Vijayan who has killed BJP and RSS workers in Kerala ? Asked Amit Shah
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, saying Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was responsible for the political murders of BJP and RSS workers in the state.
Shah said as many as 120 BJP and RSS workers have been murdered in Kerala since 2001 and asked the CPI-M-led government to let the people know who was responsible for such killings.”I am asking Chief Minister Vijayan who has killed BJP and RSS workers in Kerala. If he does not have answers, then I am saying CM Vijayan is responsible for it,” Shah told a gathering in Kannur. The “Jana Raksha Yatra” is expected to travel through Kerala before culminating in Thiruvananthapuram on October 17.
Shah, in a traditional Kerala dhoti, offered prayers this morning at the Rajarajeshwara temple in the northern district of Kannur before launching his party’s Jan Raksha (protect people) yatra. In a direct challenge to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the BJP began its yatra in Payyannur, adjacent to his home town Pinarayi, in Kannur, notorious for decades of political violence.
Shah said the march was a non-violent protest against the political killings. “We are starting the march from Kannur because it is the Chief Minister’s home district.”As part of the ‘padayatra’, Shah will on October 05 walk past the home of Chief Minister Vijayan in Kannur, as a mark of protest against the ruling CPI-M’s “political violence” and also against growing jihadi terrorism.
Over the next 15 days, Amit Shah and other top BJP leaders and union ministers will relay walk along with hundreds of party workers across the state to capital Thiruvanthapuram, to highlight what the BJP calls the ruling CPM’s “murder politics.” Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, also the Hindutva face of the party, reaches Kannur tomorrow to participate in the yatra.
Mr Shah who is in Kerala for three days, will address two public meetings today and will walk four km through Kannur. On Thursday, he will again join the yatra on foot as it crosses Pinarayi. In Kerala, BJP to highlight what the party calls the ruling CPM’s “murder politics”
The BJP alleges a spike in murderous attacks on its workers and members in the state by the CPM cadre since the party came to power in Kerala last year. “The CPI(M) is desperate and on a killing spree. It is doing murder politics in its desperation and people, including from the CPI(M), are joining the BJP. We will use democratic means to answer its violence,” union minister Prakash Javadekar said in Delhi on Monday.
Hours before Amit Shah launched the yatra, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan used a Facebook post to hit back at the BJP saying, “The Sangh Parivar shouldn’t think that they can make inroads into Kerala by false propaganda. The state government is committed to ensure peace. Instead of fueling false stories and processions, people expect central ministers and ruling party leadership to control their workers and ensure peace.”
The BJP has been a bit player in Kerala politics for years and it remains the only state where the party is yet to make significant electoral gains, but Amit Shah has been making focused efforts to gain a foothold ever since he took over as party chief in 2014. In last year’s assembly elections the party could win just a single seat in the 140-member Kerala assembly, but Mr Shah wants to change that, preferably before the 2019 national election, when he hopes Kerala will contribute to a BJP return to power. The party has never won a parliament seat from Kerala.
Kannur has for years witnessed clashes, especially between Left activists and those of the BJP and its ideological mentor the RSS. In the 16 months since May last year, when the CPM-led Left Democratic Front won the assembly elections in Kerala, there have been eight gruesome political murders – five BJP workers and three of the CPM have been killed allegedly by political rivals. Crime Bureau statistics show that 45 CPM activists, 44 of the BJP, 15 of the Congress and four from the Muslim League have been killed since 1991 in Kannur.
(With Agency inputs)
