The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will lay siege to the Secretariat on May 20, the first anniversary of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, in protest against the SilverLine semi-high-speed rail project and other alleged anti-people policies of the State.

A State leadership meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held here on Monday urged the government to withdraw from the K-Rail project.

Addressing a press conference after the NDA meet, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran said the State government had failed to intervene in the market to control the rising prices of essentials.

The suicide of a farmer in Thiruvalla was the latest example of the anti-farmer policies of the government. Industries sector had been destroyed and government-sponsored attacks were happening across the State, he said. The leadership meeting had taken a serious view of the fact that the money from the Centrally sponsored schemes were not being spent efficiently, he said.

The meeting also decided to begin work in full swing for the byelection to the Thrikkakkara Assembly Constituency. The NDA would meet at Thrikkakkara on April 22. The front would take efforts to attract more minorities and SC and ST communities.

Launching an attack on the Congress party, Mr. Surendran said the Congress had proved to be irrelevant in the State, after the leadership’s vacillations over senior leader K.V. Thomas’s participation in the CPI(M) party congress. The people did not trust the Congress party in its struggle against the K-rail project.

NDA convenor Thushar Vellappally, joint convenor P.K. Krishnadas, C.K. Janu, Kummanam Rajasekharan, and others participated in the leadership meet.