The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat on Friday (October 17, 2025) accused the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) of unleashing violence on the streets to re-direct public attention from the latter’s “internal dissensions and flailing political fortunes” in the crucial election year.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a news conference that the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) latest reorganisation had widened the factional fissures in the party.
Infighting in Congress
He said the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) constitution of jumbo committees to accommodate hundreds of persons locked in the perennial “rat race” for organisational posts has spawned more factional feuding and insidious resentment against the national leadership. He alleged that the Youth Congress reorganisation had rendered the outfit profoundly divided along factional lines.
“The grievance-ridden utterances of leaders point to the profound and seemingly irreconcilable infighting in the Congress and its affiliates”, he said.
Mr. Govindan said the beleaguered Congress leadership sought temporary solace in street violence to escape its political woes.
He accused Congress leader Shafi Parambil, MP, of orchestrating violence against CPI(M) activists, law enforcers and Students Federation of India (SFI) workers in Perambra in Kozhikode recently.
He said Congress workers attacked the local panchayat president for exposing Mr. Shafi’s attempt to take credit for the completion of Life Mission Housing projects, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s flagship homelessness eradication and poverty alleviation scheme, in the district.
Mr. Govindan accused the Congress of assaulting SFI activists for sweeping college and university elections in the Kozhikode district.
“The Congress workers led by the MP attacked the police with sticks and country bombs. The police exercised utmost restraint despite the brazen provocation,” he said.
Hijab controversy
Mr. Govindan accused the Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and the Congress’s tacit allies, the Jamaat-e-Islami Kerala, and the “Islamist” organisation’s political arm, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), of rendering the headscarf (hijab) issue centred around the privately managed St Rita’s School at Palluruthy in Ernakulam.
“General Education Minister V. Sivankutty had rightfully upheld the Muslim girl students’ right to expression of religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution. Mr. Sivankutty had also warned school authorities, the PTA, the elected representatives and students’ parents against allowing the controversy to backslide into social friction,” he said.
Published – October 17, 2025 07:13 pm IST
