Kerala CM forced to skip event, MP govt says sorry

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has apologised to Kerala chief minister P. Vijayan for the Saturday’s unsavoury incident leading him to cancellation of his programme in Bhopal.

Official sources said that the state government was embarrassed over the incident and offered apology to the Kerala chief minister for facing a situation which forced him to cancel one of his scheduled programmes in Bhopal on Saturday.

“MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke to his Kerala counterpart on phone in this regard,” officials said.

Mr Vijayan was scheduled to attend a reception meet organised by United Mala-yalit Association, Bhopal Malayali Association and South Bhopal Malayali Samajam here on Saturday after addressing the All-India Democratic Women Association members.

He was reportedly prevented by cops from attending the reception meet citing security reasons.

He was apprised by a police officer accompanying his convoy at Bhopal of possible protests by RSS workers and advised him not to attend the event.

Mr Vijayan shelved his plan to attend the function, saying that he was opposed to visiting a place defying the warning by those handling his security affairs there.

Sangh parivar members were staging protest at the venue of the meeting organised at Bhopal School of Social Sciences here on Saturday evening against killings of RSS workers in Kerala. The police had taken 20 demonstrators to preventive custody.

Bhopal DIG R.S. Sikarwar, however, clarified that he had requested the Kerala chief minister to delay his visit to the venue for sometime due to security reasons.