JOIN USThe stone-throwing at Kannur that led to minor injuries to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has put the CPM on the defensive, as verbal exchanges on the incident continued on Tuesday.
Even as Oommen Chandy, who was injured in the incident, was discharged from hospital, Kannur police cited video evidence to reveal that one of the protesters who hurled stones at the chief minister’s car was a local DYFI activist.
On a day of busy press briefings and TV debates, the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) maintained that CPM cadres were not involved in the incident. The Kannur district leadership of the CPM has slammed the police for unfair detention of party workers.
On Tuesday, about 15 more CPM activists were rounded up in connection with the stone-pelting incident.
The Congress, meanwhile, dismissed CPM claims that a faction of the Congress under senior leader K Sudhakaran had “orchestrated” the attack to settle political scores.
Sudhakaran himself mentioned names of Left-affiliated activists who were involved in the attack. He, along with other senior party leaders, criticised the police on the serious security lapse at the event where the protest was staged.