A day ahead of the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s visit to the city for the Karavali Souharda Rally, affiliates of the Sangh Parivar on Friday took out a procession and held a protest at Nehru Maidan opposing his participation.
Supporters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Hindu Jagarana Vedike and other affiliates, backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, participated in the protest.
The procession was from B.R. Ambedkar Circle to the maidan and many people participated in it.
Addressing protesters, the Kerala BJP general secretary K. Surendran said that the protest and the call for a district hartal on Saturday was against the murders of people opposed to the Communist ideology in Kannur and neighbouring areas in Kerala.
Mr. Vijayan was an accused in a murder reported in 1968. CPI (M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan too was an accused in another murder.
Mr. Vijayan does not have any moral right to speak on communal harmony, he said.
Mr. Surendran said that Mr. Vijayan was not allowed to speak recently in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP would democratically face the CPI (M) wherever it contested the polls.
Convener of the Kerala BJP unit Kuntaru Ravish Tantri said that not only Hindus but people from other castes too were victims of political murders in Kerala.
These political murders were being given a communal colour by the Kerala government, he alleged.
President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad South Karnataka Zone M.B. Puranik said that Saturday’s hartal would be peaceful to express frustrations against murders in Kerala.
MPs Nalin Kumar Kateel, Shobha Karandlaje, and Sunil Kumar, Karkala MLA, were among those who took part in the protest.
Meanwhile, there were allegations against protestors defacing banners of Saturday’s rally in several parts of the city on Friday.
According to Muneer Katipalla, State president, Democratic Youth Federation of India, the protesters destroyed banners of Mr. Vijayan at three places during the procession.
He also accused a BJP councillor and his group of setting on fire a banner of Mr. Vijayan in Hampankatta. Complaints have been filed in Mangaluru North and Surthakal police station limits, he said.
