North Kerala on the boil after CPI(M)-BJP clashes

Offices of both parties come under attack

The acrimonious relations between the CPI(M) and BJP appear be taking a turn for the worse with skirmishes between activists of the two parties erupting in different parts of the State, particularly in the north.

Kozhikode lived through a violence-marred dawn-to-dusk hartal on Friday and would go through the same experience on Saturday. Friday’s hartal was called by the CPI(M) in protest against a bomb attack on the party district committee office around 1.15 a.m., right when the party district secretary P. Mohanan was alighting from a car on after visiting the party’s office at Feroke on the outskirts of the city.

The CPI(M) accused the RSS of having planned and executed the attack with the intention of killing him. While he saw a deliberate plan behind the attack, the BJP district leadership has sought a comprehensive inquiry to check the veracity of the allegation.

The hartal saw violence and vandalism in different parts of the district, particularly in Vadakara where the local office of the BJP and the offices of its allied organisations such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh came under attack. The suburbs of the city also saw workers of the CPI(M) and BJP indulging in destruction of party flags and publicity material.

In Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal Circle Inspector Anil Kumar sustained injuries on his head when he was hit during a clash between BJP and CPI(M) workers on Friday evening. The two sides had taken out marches to protest against attacks on houses of their party workers resulting in a showdown in the town area.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan accused the BJP-RSS leadership of having hatched a plan to trigger violence in different parts of the State by targeting CPI(M) leaders so as to create the impression that Kerala was in the grip of violence under LDF rule.

The whole scheme was hatched after BJP State president Amit Shah’s visit to the State and was targeted at capturing power in the State. The CPI(M) would resist all such attempts by rallying people behind it, he said.