Congress protests against Kerala CM on aircraft

Incident leads to CPI(M)-Congress violence across State

Thiruvanathapuram: A tense situation prevailed in the State late Monday after an in-flight Congress protest against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan provoked a retaliatory attack by “Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) workers“ on the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) headquarters at Indira Bhavan here.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Congress have portrayed the inflight incident differently. The CPI(M) depicted it as a bid to assault Mr. Vijayan.

The attempt had unfolded after Mr. Vijayan exited the aircraft when it touched down at the Thiruvananthapuram airport from Kannur.

The CPI(M) said Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E.P. Jayarajan had stopped the attackers. Mr. Jayarajan alleged that the demonstrators were drunk and had moved menacingly towards the chair left vacant by Mr. Vijayan.

The Congress has contradicted the CPI(M) claim. It termed the onboard demonstration a “democratic and peaceful protest.” The party would observe a ‘black day’ on Tuesday in protest against the “CPI(M) attack” on Indira Bhavan.

Grainy video images captured on mobile phones by co-passengers showed a Congress worker falling on the cabin floor. The police identified the protesters as Congress Mattannur block president Farzin Majid and secretary R.K. Navin. The duo denied they were drunk and accused Mr. Jayarajan of assaulting them.

The police claimed that law enforcers had challenged the person wearing black shirt when he attempted to board the flight at Kannur airport. He dodged the security by claiming that he was visiting a relative admitted to the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

The police have ordered an inquiry into the “security breach.”

Meanwhile, reports of CPI(M)-Congress violence trickled in from across the State late at night. At least 17 persons were reportedly injured in inter-party clashes in Kannur. CPI(M) workers allegedly attacked a Congress leader in Idukki. In Thiruvananthapuram, Congress workers clashed with the police. The police have upped security for Congress and CPI(M) offices.

The Congress claimed that former Chief Minister A.K. Antony, who was in the KPCC office at the time of the attack, had escaped injury by a hairbreadth. The party said the CPI(M) men had smashed the windscreen of cars parked in front of Indira Bhavan.

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been on the warpath for the past seven days demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation after gold case suspect Swapna Suresh accused him of exploiting the UAE consulate’s diplomatic channel to import “contraband metal” and send tranches of foreign currency abroad sans Customs scrutiny.