Special Protection Group shifts PM’s meet venue to make room for crowds

Thrissur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public meeting organised by the BJP here on December 14. The stage for the function has been shifted from the proposed southern tower of Vadakkumnathan temple to Naikkanal at Thekkinkkad Maidan as suggested by the Special Protection Group (SPG) officials.

City Police Commissioner K.G. Simon told DC that a three-member SPG team from Delhi who visited the area on Friday morning wanted to relocate the stage to accommodate more people.

“There is no issue of security. More SPG members would come and stay here till December 14,” he said. Some two lakh people are expected to attend the public meeting, BJP functionaries said.

‘PM was invited to Sivagiri’
Meanwhile, BJP state president V. Muraleedha-ran told mediapersons here that he had received an invitation from the Sivagiri mutt in August requesting Mr Modi to take part in the inauguration of Sivagiri pilgrimage.

“I forwarded it to the Prime Minister and later informed the mutt that it may not be possible for him to visit the mutt for the inauguration. But he will pay a visit when he arrives in Kerala, and accordingly he will visit the mutt on December 15,” he said.

He did not know on what basis the saints of the mutt were now saying that the PM had not been invited to the mutt, he added.

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