Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's visit to Kerala today is expected to take the BJP's all-out campaign blitz against the ruling CPI(M)-led government in Kerala right into the rival camp.
The Union Minister's main agenda is to visit the house of Rajesh, an RSS karyavah, allegedly killed by CPI(M) cadres in violence that opened a new front in the state capital, as well as that of another activist critically injured in another incident.
POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Jaitley is scheduled to speak at a meeting to pay homage to the slain karyavah. Later in the evening he will attend a small gathering where he would meet with BJP-RSS activists who have sustained injuries in political clashes.
Much political significance is being attached to the Union Minister's gestures, coming as they do in the context of the RSS leadership's call to bring Kerala under President's rule, citing the poor law and order situation.
Having ensured a smooth victory for its candidates for President and Vice-President, the BJP has an unprecedented political presence and has its own view on matters such as this.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS sarsangchalak, too, is arriving in the state next week to take stock of the situation obtaining here.
The CPI(M), evidently flustered by the national attention that the unsavoury developments in its backyard have elicited, is seeking to do its best to save itself the blushes.
CPI(M) SEEKS AUDIENCE
The party has demanded that Jaitley also meet the kith and kin of its own martyrs, who also lost their lives in violence involving the RSS-BJP across the state.
Family members of the party's victims will hold a sit-in in front of Raj Bhavan, where the Union Minister is scheduled to meet the Governor P Sathasivam.
The Governor was himself in the news when, in an unprecedented act, he summoned the Chief Minister and the state Police Chief, following the murder of the RSS karyavah.
While the state CPI(M) committee chose to ignore its ramifications initially, it later said the way the Governor went about tweeting about the event was unbecoming of his stature.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dared the Centre to oust his government, and dismissed such threats as nothing more than posturing and bravado.