Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists on Sunday accorded a public reception to a group of former Sangh Parivar activists of Ambadimukku here, a saffron spot, that turned red after a large chunk of the saffron brigade in the area had joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) fold in January.
The BJP-RSS leadership here claimed that 11 youths who were among those who had deserted the Sangh Parivar to join the CPI(M) camp returned to the saffron party. The Sangh Parivar celebrated the occasion apparently to repay the way the desertion of the Sangh Parivar activists had been celebrated by the CPI(M). A statement signed by the activists, who returned to the BJP-RSS, said they were disillusioned by the politics of violence of the CPI(M).
BJP State vice president M.T. Ramesh, addressing the reception rally, said the CPI(M)’s propaganda that large sections of the Sangh Parivar here were switching sides to the CPI(M) was proved wrong. Before the reception meeting began, some BJP-RSS activists were seen repainting the electric posts with saffron paint to mark the event as a ‘re-conquest.’ The police said they were watching the situation to ensure that there was no tension.