Security has been tightened in the three northern districts of the State in view of the BJP taking out a Jana Shakti Yatra through the so-called party villages in control of CPI(M) particularly in Kannur district beginning Tuesday.
P.K. Krishnadas, former national secretary of the party is leading the yatra from Koyilandy while V. Muraleedharan, from Uduma in Kasaragod district. Both the marches will cover the politically sensitive 20 Assembly constituencies in Kasaragod, Kannur, and Kozhikode districts.
The former president C.K. Padmanabhan inaugurated the yatra being led by Mr. Krishnadas at Koyilandy on Monday evening. However, the yatra will commence its journey from Tuesday morning.
The inauguration and commencement of the Uduma yatra will be on Tuesday. The two regional yatras will conclude in Kannur on Thursday.
“The police had taken all precautionary measures in rural Kozhikode , Kannur and Kasaragod,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (Kannur Range) Dinendra Kashyap, who was in Thiruvananthapuram, told The Hindu over phone on Monday. He was attending a conference called by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, in the State capital.
He said that all the district police chiefs had been directed to be extra vigilant for averting any untoward incident.
Additional police personnel drawn from the Armed Reserve Camps and other battalions including the Malabar Special Police would be deployed in these districts for the three days.
The police had prepared an elaborate security cordon for the three-day programme. Patrolling would be intensified during the daytime and the night hours in these regions. The police would be accompanying the yatras from point to point, Mr. Kashyap said.
This was the first time that a political party, despite being vulnerable, is taking out marches in the Kozhikode-Kannur-Kasaragod regions. Incidentally these yatras come less than a month after the murder of a Rashtriya Sweyamsevak Sangh leader at Kadirur ón September 1.
An array of BJP State office-officers including general secretaries K. Surendran, K.P Sreesan, vice-president M.T. Ramesh, secretary V. V. Rajan and spokesperson V. K. Sajeevan and Bharatiya JanataYuva Morcha State general secretary Prakash Babu are taking part in the yatra.
Mr. Ramesh said that these jathas (processions) were being carried out with the message freedom, peace and development.
“Our campaign is to expose the fascist face of the CPI (M) in the party villages, ” he said, accusing the CPI (M) of not permitting any other political party to function in their strongholds.