Congress intensifies anti-CM agitation, to continue till Pinarayi resigns

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday conducted a Secretariat march demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "This marks the start of a series of agitations that will end only with the resignation of the Chief Minister," opposition leader V D Satheesan said while addressing a gathering of hundreds of Congress worker in front of the Secretariat.

A consensus has also been struck within the UDF to intensify the agitation. ""There is a break down of law and order. We have a situation in which the police is directly involved in crimes," Muslim League general secretary P K Kunhalikutty said in Malappuram. "It is time to carry out a strong campaign against the government. There will be a massive agitation," Kunhalikutty.

The developments set off by Nilambur MLA P V Anvar seems to have forged a semblance of unity within the Congress party as well. The KPCC Secretariat march was led jointly by Satheesan and KPCC president K Sudhakaran.

The KPCC chief said that the police, even without any provocation, had mercilessly beaten up Youth Congress workers. The YC Secretariat march on September 5 demanding Pinarayi's resignation in the wake of P V Anvar's allegations had turned violent, with senior YC leaders like Abin Varkey badly injured in the police action.

"The limbs and heads of poor boys who had done nothing were crushed and broken by the police," Sudhakaran said. At that moment when Sudhakaran was addressing Congress volunteers in the capital, up north in Kannur Youth Congress workers were clashing with the police. The YC had taken a march to the Kannur Commissioner's office in protest against the police action against YC workers in Thiruvananthapuram on September 5.

"If Pinarayi cannot control the police, he should resign," the KPCC chief said. "He is bothered only about making money for his family. A responsible Chief Minister should be worried about creating peaceful conditions for his people. Pinarayi is incapable of this. If he is not willing to step down on his own, I hope the people will rise up and throw him out," Sudhakaran said.

Satheesan, too, was scathing in his attack on the Chief Minister. He said Pinarayi would henceforth be known as the "pooram pooper" ('pooram kalakky'),a reference to his earlier charge that the CM had used ADGP (Law & Order) Ajithkumar to disrupt the Thrissur Pooram this year so that the BJP candidate Suresh Gopi could reap the harvest of the communal polarisation that would result.

Satheesan had also alleged that ADGP Ajithkumar met RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale in 2023 to prepare the ground for such a political shift in Kerala. "What was the message the CM delivered to the RSS leader through the ADGP," Satheesan asked on Friday, and then himself provided the answer: "We will prepare the ground for a BJP win in Kerala but, in turn, free us from all the corruption cases."

The Secretariat march was inaugurated by AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala affairs Deepa Dasmunshi.