THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP national president Amit Shah, who is arriving here to address the Secretariat siege by BJP workers on May 19, will also attend the state core committee meeting of the party.
According to the programmes approved by the BJP chief’s office confirming his attendance, the only programme other than the Secretariat siege is the core committee meeting to be held after the siege.
Shah, however, will remain in Thiruvananthapuram the whole day and leave for New Delhi only on the next day.
He will have sufficient time to review the blue print to be prepared by the BJP office-bearers’ meeting scheduled for May 13 in Thrissur which will have a brain storming session on the roadmap for the upcoming local body elections.
Asked whether the party chief would be reviewing the preparations and strategies for the elections, BJP state president V Muralidharan told ‘Express’ that as of now it is not necessary for the party chief to review such matters as it has to be evolved as part of a regular process at the state level.
“Amit Shah ji will be addressing the core committee meeting. He will be here for the whole day.”
“Amit Shah can take up any matter for discussion. But we will be ready with a roadmap for the local body elections to be prepared in the crucial office-bearers’ meeting,” the party chief said.
Moreover, the central leadership has entrusted Rajiv Pratap Rudy to help the state unit chalk out the action plan in the run-up to the LSG elections.
A meeting attended by Amit Shah and Rudy was held in New Delhi recently. Now his visit is to instill confidence in the workers that the BJP leadership was keenly watching the functioning of the party in the election hour.
‘No Move to Take Away Works of CSL’
Muralidharan said that there was no move on the part of the Centre to take away any of the work orders of Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL).
“In fact, when Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari visited Kochi twice, he had offered more help to the shipyard. What he wanted was to equip Cochin shipyard for future development and to take more works. He had assured that he would in no way act against the interest of the Cochin Shipyard,’’ he said answering a query on CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s allegation that the Centre was trying to take away the works of the CSL to Gujarat.
On the KGS Group’s claim that the Aranmula airport project was included in the Prime Minister’s Project Monitoring Group’s list of projects, he said it was included in the list during the time of Manmohan Singh.
‘’It may not have been deleted from the list. So, technically it is still in the list. But that doesn’t mean that Prime Minister Modi had given any assurance,’’ Muralidharan said.