The workers were protesting against the highhandedness of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's security detail.
Published Dec 17, 2023 | 11:39 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 17, 2023 | 12:20 PM
Congress Kerala chief K Sudhakaran visiting KPCC general secretary MJ Job's house. Job and his wife were allegedly assaulted by the chif minister's security detail. (X)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not see his gunman attacking protesting Youth Congress and KSU workers in Alappuzha despite a video, purportedly of the assault making rounds on social media.
Claiming that the security personnel in the video was Sandeep, Youth Congress workers took out a protest march to his house at Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, 16 December.
The march turned violent after the police put up barricades near Sandeep’s house and prevented the Youth Congress activists from proceeding further. As the workers scaled the barricades, the police used water cannon to disperse the crowd.
The Congress has been alleging that Vijayan’s security personnel had attacked the protesters with a baton and claimed that the chief minister was accompanied by “criminals” in the police force as his bodyguards.
“The chief minister’s bodyguards and gunmen are a group of hardened criminals in the police. We clearly know the criminal background of each of them,” Opposition leader VD Satheesan said after the protesters were assaulted on Friday.
The chief minister, on Saturday, sought to defend his bodyguards and said they acted to ensure that there was no danger to him. However, Vijayan said that he didn’t see the particular officer attacking the KSU activists who had staged a protest in Alappuzha.
The chief minister and his Cabinet of ministers are travelling across Kerala on a bus as part of the government’s Nava Kerala Sadas, an outreach programme.
Reports of Opposition party workers waving black flags at the chief minister’s motorcade and DFYI activists attacking them have emerged in the state. Even journalists were not spared.
In an apparent case of mistaken identity, the CPI(M) men attacked one of their comrades in Ernakulam. The victim said he was leaving the party.
KPCC president K Sudhakaran alleged that criminals and police were systematically attacking Congress workers on the chief minister’s orders.
Sudhakaran said that if the CPI(M) did not intervene to stop the criminals, the Congress would respond strongly.
