Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday, 25 June accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of orchestrating violence at the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation to deflect public attention from what he described as the party's decade-long governance failures in the state. Chandrasekhar made the remarks after visiting injured officials — including Mayor V.V. Rajesh and Deputy Mayor G. Ashanath — at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

What Chandrasekhar Said at the Hospital

Speaking to reporters after the hospital visit, Chandrasekhar alleged that the CPI(M) was deploying 'orchestrated violence as a political weapon.' He drew a pointed parallel with an earlier incident in which violence had broken out inside the Kerala Legislative Assembly during a Congress-led government, asserting that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not tolerate any group storming the Mayor's office.

'Whether it is Pinarayi Vijayan or any CPI(M) comrade, nobody will be allowed to take the law into their own hands,' he said. He added that no one should assume the country's largest political party could be cowed by what he termed 'cheap political theatrics.'

The White Paper Backdrop

Chandrasekhar linked Thursday's violence to the political fallout from Chief Minister Satheesan's White Paper, tabled in the Kerala Assembly, which he said had exposed financial mismanagement and administrative failures of the previous Pinarayi Vijayan government. According to him, the BJP had anticipated days earlier that the CPI(M) would stage provocative protests to shift focus away from those revelations. 'What happened today is merely a repetition of that script,' he said.

Civic Failures and the Exalogic Controversy

Chandrasekhar argued that if the CPI(M) genuinely wanted to protest, the public's anger should be directed at the party's own headquarters — the AKG Centre — over the Exalogic corruption controversy. He also cited the party's 45-year control of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, questioning its record on persistent civic failures including waste management and drinking water shortages, as well as broader issues of unemployment and inflation.

BJP's Political Warning

The BJP president stressed that Kerala is governed by the rule of law, not by any political party. 'The courts, police, and other legal institutions will perform their duties. The CPI(M) cannot place itself above the law,' he said. Chandrasekhar further claimed that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had consolidated itself as a credible opposition in Kerala following the Assembly elections, and that voters had begun recognising what he described as an implicit understanding between the CPI(M) and the Congress within the INDIA Bloc. The violence, he argued, reflected the CPI(M)'s frustration over setbacks in both the corporation and state politics.

The incident marks a fresh flashpoint in the ongoing political rivalry between the BJP and the CPI(M) in Kerala, with both parties likely to escalate their positions ahead of upcoming electoral contests.