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Thiruvananthapuram: Reverberations of the political vendetta that claimed seven lives in the week gone by in Kannur district rocked the Kerala assembly on Monday.
Buoyed by a fast staged by opposition leader Oommen Chandy in Kannur on Sunday to protest against the violence, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) on Monday demanded an immediate discussion on the matter in the legislature.
When the speaker did not oblige, UDF members staged a walkout, alleging that the government was apathetic about the issue despite the fact that seven persons had been killed in clashes between cadres of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Government claim
The opposition demand was turned down after chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan and home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan explained that normalcy had returned to Kannur.
Achuthanandan and Balakrishnan had both been away in Delhi for discussions at the time the killings took place.
Balakrishnan said the rival parties had given him an assurance to work together to end hostilities.
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