BJP president Amit Shah’s has cut short his visit to Kerala and Karantaka after having to leave for New Delhi, say media reports.
Shah was supposed to address an ‘intellectual meet’ and hold a preliminary meeting about the organisation of the Parivarthana rally in Bengaluru on 2 November. However, these programmes have been postponed indefinitely due to “unavoidable reasons”, Sanjeeva Matandoor, president, Dakshina Kannada unit of the party told the press on Tuesday.
Shah was going to take part in the Janraksha yatra in Kerala on 5 and 6 October, but cut short the tour after receiving a message from the party headquarters. He will return to New Delhi via Mangaluru airport at 10 pm. Matandoor said that the party district leaders do not know the reason for this sudden change in plans.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is still scheduled to take part in the yatra on Wednesday, said Matandoor.
In the original itinerary, Shah was to attend programmes in Mangaluru and then return to Kannur to take part in the yatra that he launched in Kerala on Tuesday. However, these too have been cancelled too. Elaborate arrangements had been made in Mangaluru to welcome Shah.
There was speculation in a section of the BJP that the meetings were cancelled as Shah is unhappy with the rift among party leaders in the state.
On Tuesday, Shah flagged off the Janaraksha Yatra in Payyannur, Kannur. He also lashed out at Kerala’s CPM and blamed the party for supporting political violence in the state. “End of CPM will herald the end of political violence,” Shah said, while calling out to BJP workers to end the violence in the state.
As part of a 154-kilometre yatra that started on Tuesday and will go on till 17 October, Shah walked seven kilometres in Kannur. The yatra which will end in Thiruvananthapuram will cover 11 districts in Kerala and is seen as a strong move to tap into Kerala’s vote bank.
The yatra was postponed earlier on 29 August because it would have been ‘inconvenient’ for Shah to attend, according to the party. A party release had said “the yatra to be led by state BJP chief Kummanom Rajasekharan, which was scheduled to commence on 7 September, has been postponed to October.”
