Amit Shah skips rally through Pinarayi's village, CPI (M) puts up posters of its 'martyrs'

After claiming that he will take his fight into Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's hometown, BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday failed to turn up in Kannur to lead the state-wide yatra that he had kicked off two days earlier.

According to reports, BJP President Amit Shah had rushed to Delhi to meet PM Modi. 

Named "Janaraksha Yatra", Shah had walked on Tuesday from Payyannur in Kannur district with hundreds of BJP activists and promised to return on Thursday morning to walk past Vijayan's home at Pinarayi.

On Thursday, the rally started from Mambaram, with the village of Pinarayi being around 3km from here. In due course, the rally passed through Pinarayi, which is the place where the Kerala CM’s residence is located.

Posters condemning the killings allegedly committed by RSS, appeared at Pinarayi village. The posters also condemned the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh. 

The poster below says, “From Gandhiji to Gauri Lankesh, who is next?”

People were lined up on both sides of the road, but the crowds were less as compared to the first two days.

This poster took potshots at the UP CM for leading the rally and pointed out to the deaths of newborns at a hospital there recently. 

Most of the shops were closed on the Mambaram-Pinarayi stretch. There was no official announcement from the CPI (M) for the shops to be closed. When TNM spoke to some of the shopkeepers, they said they had shut the shops as a precautionary measure.

Since the yatra was passing through the Kerala CM’s hometown of Pinarayi, police were keeping extra vigil and no untoward incidents were reported.

Meanwhile, Kummanem Rajasekheran, the BJP state President, explained Shah's absence by saying that he himself could take the fight into Vijayan's camp at Pinarayi and that Shah's presence was not required.

The earlier plan was that Shah would walk nine kilometres and address a public meeting at Tellichery.

Amit Shah had participated in the yatra on the first day, from Payyannur to Pilathara. On the second day, UP CM Yogi Adityanath was at the forefront of the yatra from Keecheri to Kannur town.

(With IANS inputs)