Hyderabad: The first visit by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to Hyderabad is expected to be controversial with the BJP opposing the visit while the CPM firm in its stand.

The CPI(M) on Monday said it would go ahead with a public meeting to be attended by the party leader Pinarayi Vijayan here on March 19, a day after a BJP MLA asked the Kerala Chief Minister to stay away from the gathering. Condemning the comments of Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh that "he would see how that meeting would happen if Vijayan attended it", the CPI(M) politburo member BV Raghavulu said his party cannot be cowed down by such "threats".

Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh and (right) CPI(M) politburo member BV Raghavulu

In a video message on Sunday, Singh had alleged the RSS and BJP members were being targetted and killed in Kerala. "The Kerala CM is visiting Hyderabad and he is going to address a public meeting at Nizam College Grounds here on March 19. Our Hindu brothers are being killed in that state and how can we remain silent when the CM of that state is visiting Hyderabad. I will see to it how that meeting will happen," Singh had said.

The Left party is holding the meeting to mark the culmination of its five-month long "Mahajana Padayatra" which took off on October 18 last year from Ibrahimpatnam in Ranga Reddy district with the main agenda to secure social justice and comprehensive development. Singh, who had said he didn't have any problem with the CPI(M) or CPI holding the meeting except for Vijayan's presence, had appealed to the Telangana Government and the state Police not to grant permission to the gathering. Claiming that it has become a "habit" for the BJP and the RSS to issue such "threats', the CPI (M) politburo member said people and democratic forces should condemn the "attempts to stall the meeting due to political reasons." He alleged RSS functionaries had issued threats against Vijayan in Karnataka earlier and in Madhya Pradesh recently, and also to a Kargil martyr's daughter.

CPI(M) has taken a permission from the police and it would organise the event "democratically", Raghavulu added.