Parties battle for dominance in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHPAURAM:  The recent clashes between CPM and BJP, and CPM and SDPI have reflected the  the growing fight between the activists of these organisations for political space in the district. The fresh round of  violence between CPM and BJP-RSS has proved that the peace initiative taken by the district leadership of the two parties in August had failed.  There is a clear a pattern behind the violence witnessed in the city and surrounding areas. While the incidents in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation on Saturday brought to fore BJP strategy to position itself as aggressive opposition compared to the Congress-led UDF, the CPM tried to utilise the attack on Mayor to put the Sangh Parivar on the defensive.

The corporation incident triggered more violence in different parties of the district. With the cadres of the two parties engaging in direct fight in many parts of the districts including Kattakada, Parassala-Neyyattinkara belt, Manacaud,Thiruvallom, Karikkakom and Anavoor,  most peace initiatives are having only temporary effect. The CPM is also facing a new threat from SDPI especially in Kattakada belt.  Workers of the two parties clashed in the area during the last two days, causing law and order problem.  The two parties are making allegations and counter allegations holding each other responsible for the trail of violence. In August the CPM – BJP leaders decided to put in place a mechanism by which real time intervention could be possible to avert clashes.

They even came to an understanding that in the event of clash at local level, the district leadership would jointly intervene in the matter and try to diffuse the situation. The two parties had appealed to the cadre to exercise maximum restraint even in the face of extreme provocation to avoid violent incidents. The joint meeting decided to issue strict directions to their respective cadres to refrain from attacking houses of leaders, party offices and damaging party flag posts. However, what happened during the past two three days was total violation of the agreement reached at the peace meetings.  Many believe that the top leadership of CPM-BJP-SDPI will have to intervene positively to rein in their violent cadre to restore peace in the district.