Amit Shah's Kerala Quest: Focus to Be on Ruling Left's SC Vote Bank, SilverLine Protests during Visit

Union home minister Amit Shah will visit Kerala this month to have discussions with and address a gathering of grassroots Schedule Caste leaders. He is also likely to take stock of human rights violations during protests against the SilverLine railway project.

Sources stated that all important events in the recent past like the murder of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist are likely to be taken up during discussions with party representatives apart from meeting the SC community leaders. Shah is visiting the state on April 29.

The SC population, considered to be the vote bank of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), has shown interest in the Bharatiya Janata Party and that is why the outreach, said sources.

Union minister from Kerala V Muraleedharan said, “He (Shah) will address a meeting of Schedule Caste leaders. There are almost 2,000 leaders from the SC community who work at the grassroots level. Kerala has a large population of the SC community, around 8%,” said the minister.

The minister also said that the SC population was with the CPI(M) earlier but had started appreciating the works done by the Narendra Modi government for them.

“Now they have realised that the government of Narendra Modi has done so much for the downtrodden, marginalised, and poor. Definitely, we want to convey this message to the Scheduled Caste community. So, we are planning to invite not only BJP leaders but SC leaders from outside the party as well,” added Muraleedharan.

Sources in the party informed that the state unit is preparing ahead of Shah’s review meeting with the local office-bearers and district presidents.

“During the SilverLine project protest, many expecting mothers and women were brutally beaten as they protested against forcible planting of markers in the form of concrete bricks in people’s houses despite the venture not being approved by the Centre. Shah is likely to take stock of government-sponsored violence and breach of privacy by the state government as it looked to illegally stake a claim on people’s land,” a senior party leader in the state told News18.

Read all the Latest Politics News here