BJP calls hartal in Kerala after offices come under attack

The BJP has called for hartal at a number of places in Kerala after its offices were targeted last night allegedly by CPI(M) cadres protesting the attempted attack on its leader Sitaram Yechury in New Delhi.

The CPI(M) general secretary had fallen down at the party office in New Delhi yesterday afternoon in the melee created after activists owing allegiance to the Hindu Sena had lunged at him.

The incident had happened when Yechury was entering the main hall to address a press conference to brief journalists about the proceedings of the Politburo meeting held there earlier in the day.

The assailants had entered the AKG Centre in the garb of journalists, and suddenly raised slogans against CPI(M) and Yechury as the latter was entering the hall.

The BJP and the RSS at the national and state levels have denied any role in the attack on Yechury. Neither do they have any association with the Hindu Sena.

The New Delhi incident sparked isolated incidents of violence in Left Front-ruled Kerala, first in Thiruvananthapuram where a crude bomb was hurled at the the BJP's district committee office.

This was followed by similar incidents in other parts of the state even as the politically volatile Kannur remained quiet. But the police has put Kannur and other northern districts under a strict watch.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) district secretary for Thiruvananthapuram Anavoor Nagappan has said that his party did not have any role in the reported attack on the BJP office in the capital city.

"This is a stage-managed event by the BJP to divert the attention of people from the bad publicity following the attack on our party leader in New Delhi," he said.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the BJP is taking out a protest rally in the morning. In view of this. the police has beefed up security in the state capital.

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