CPM & BJP write stories of victimhood in gore

Thiruvananthapuram: Bloodstains pasted around the poster look like an afterthought, they could be paan spit. The poster itself shows a neta in white recuperating in hospital, other injured men in different states of suffering. Lethal arms are crudely photoshopped onto the image with the scream: “CPM's bid to turn Kattaikonam into Kannur. Direct attacks on BJP RSS.“
Down the road, CPM plays the martyr to BJP's villainies.“Beware, the RSS-BJP conspiracy to turn the state capital into a conflict zone.“ The images are gruesome -stabbings, severed necks and children in distress.
Across Thiruvanathapuram's roads and alleys the two parties posters' vie for greater victimhood. From central areas like Thampanoor to the fringes like Vattiyoorkaavu to semi-rural zones like Nemom, the grisly BJP and Left artwork are everywhere. BJP alleges the Left is bringing Kannur's killing fields to the city.
There's a background to this -in March, the BJP ratcheted up its campaign against a masterplan to transform Thiruvananthapuram.CPM cadre attacked a protest march in suburban Kattaikonam.In the melee, RSS taluka activist Amal Krishna was injured, as were BJP workers. Amit Shah, who makes it a point to talk of the attacks on RSS in Kannur, visited Krishna. The RSS-CPM hostilities, it became clear, would become a debating point these elections.
BJP's former state president V Muraleedharan, who features in B the poster, says the incident shows CPM's aggression. “A 300-strong mob threw stones at us. The CPM is known to use violence. The RSS is making inroads into CPM strongholds in Thirvananthapuram and, just like in Kannur, they use violence to intimidate,“ he says.
The two parties are not rivals for the electorate's affections alone.BJP hopes to land its very first seat from Nemom where the party has fielded affable veteran O Rajagopal.
Left-Right hostilities have a long, public and violent history, especially in north Malabar. LDF convenor Vaikom Viswan laughs off the Kannur-to-Kattaikonam campaign. “They brought in activists from elsewhere to stir trouble.But locals are not fooled. As for Kannur's political violence, last Saturday the RSS attacked four CPM workers,“ he says.
It was in the early 1960s that the RSS-CPM blood feud began in north Malabar. In entire “party villages“ the Left wouldn't allow any other political presence. So strong are passions in these villages that they think little of assaulting rivals in front of families and children.The RSS, no less aggressive, took its campaign into homes and paid with a heavy body count.
Kannur's list of political murder victims is long: 70 between 1999 and 2015. According to police, CPM's lost 35 men, the BJPRSS 29, IUML 4 and the NDF 2. One cycle of violent retributions playing out to this day goes back to 1999 when Kannur CPM leader P Jayarajan was attacked allegedly by RSS workers. Over 16 years, neither has forgotten or forgiven.