Midnight police swoop on a hotel hosting campaigning politicians in Palakkad for illicit election funds roils State politics.
by G Anand · The Hindu
The high-profile midnight police raid on a hotel in Palakkad early Wednesday, ostensibly to confiscate concealed wads of illicit cash for electioneering, roiled Kerala politics in the run-up to the critical bypolls in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) sought to weaponise the sensational police swoop on the rooms of its top women campaigners, Shanimol Usman and Bindu Krishna, against the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) at the hustings.
The controversial dead-of-night police action went viral on conventional and social media, eliciting sharp public criticism and the opposition’s ire.
The videos of uniformed officers and plainclothesmen rummaging through the overnight bags of the leaders, supposedly for black money, triggered mocking memes and scathing trolls on social media.
Irate Congress workers protested in front of police facilities across the State, prompting law enforcement to deploy riot-control teams, water cannons and iron barricades.
The police attempt to unearth opaque campaign funds and interdict the alleged covert movement of black money to and from the hotel yielded no immediate result.
Ms Usman and Ms Krishna made the raiding officers give in writing that they found nothing incriminating. They also took umbrage at women officers’ “conspicuous” absence during the “intrusive” search.
Meanwhile, high political theatre unfolded outside the hospital during the raids. Scores of workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers besieged the hotel, which had become a camp for leaders of varying political hues and journalists covering the by-election campaign.
The belligerent crowd accused Congress’s candidate for the Palakkad bypoll, Rahul Mamkootathil, of hiding in the hotel with a stash of cash.
Mr. Mamkootathil riposted by posting a video of him in front of a police station in Kozhikode. Congress workers almost came to blows with CPI(M) and BJP activists in the hotel’s foyer.
LDF convenor T. P. Ramakrishnan pointed out that the police were under the Election Commission of India (ECI) control, not the State government.
Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan said it was surprising that the police had not informed any ECI official, including the Returning Officer. AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Office (CMO) of complicity in the “midnight raid” conspiracy to aid the BJP in Palakkad by vilifying the Congress’s candidate.
Published - November 06, 2024 07:05 pm IST