BJP confident of all-party meet outcome

CPI(M), BJP keen on initiating confidence-building measures at grassroots level

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who held parleys with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Monday prior to an all-party meeting in Kannur on Tuesday, are confident about its outcome.

The BJP leaders, led by State president Kummanam Rajasekharan and RSS leader Gopalan Kutty, who met Mr.Vijayan hoped the initiative at the behest of the Chief Minister would help to put an end to the violence in Kannur and other parts of the State.

Party sources told

The Hindu that both sides were keen on having confidence-building measures at the grassroots level so that the message of truce brokered at the highest level would percolate to them too. This would prevent attempts to fracture the accords struck at the all-party meeting.

Before launching a campaign involving the national leadership to protest against the sporadic incidents of violence, a BJP delegation led by Mr.Rajasekharan had called on the Chief Minister and insisted that he should take the lead to iron out an accord that would end the violence in Kannur.

RSS State secretary M.Radhakrishnan too had put forward the same demand and felt that only such an initiative would have a lasting solution to the issue. Stray attempts made to quell the incidents had not yielded any results.

The BJP was planning to raise it as a national issue and a delegation that met Union Home Minister Rajanth Singh too attempted to drive home the point. Those privy to the talks here said the Sangh Parivar would take efficient follow-up action after the all-party meeting and also make a concerted effort to spread the message of the agreement among its rank and file.