A group of irate election campaigners, allegedly belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), destroyed a party office of the Indian National Congress at Elathur in Kozhikode district on Thursday night.
According to police, there were provocative movements on the part of both the CPI (M) and Congress activists on the day of election on Wednesday which later paved way for attacking party office.
Following the complaint of Congress leaders, the police have registered a case against two persons who allegedly spearheaded the attack. They were taken into police custody on Friday morning.
Our Staff Reporter adds:
A protest march taken out by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists to the venue of a dharna staged by Congress men at Kakkodi turned violent on Friday. The protestors destroyed the chairs kept there and manhandled several party men who participated in the dharna.
The CPI (M) activists alleged that there was no truth in the propagation of Congressmen that one of their party leaders was ill-treated by Communist supporters spraying cow dung water on the day of election. The dharna was staged by the congressmen only to distort our party's image amid the public, they charged.
The protest did not last long as the police intervened in between and chased away all the party men. More cops were also deployed at the area to avert further clashes.
On the other hand, the Congress leaders came up with bitter allegations against the CPI (M) activists stating that there were concerted efforts from various parts of the district to unleash valance against Untied Democratic Front (UDF) supporters. District Congress Committee president K.C.Abu said "the CPI (M) activists were opting for callous protests to escape from the fear of defeat in the assembly elections."
U. Damodharan Nair, block president of Congress party at Kakkodi alleged that the CPI (M) activists had involvement in the incident in which he was ill-treated by spraying cow dung water. "We staged the dharna only to condemn this mean act," he said.
Stray instances of violence were reported from Kuttiyadi also where CPI (M) and Congress men locked horn over political issues. The police have tightened security here to avert untoward incidents.
