Former Congress leader K.V. Thomas has flayed the police action against a local Congress leader in Thiruvananthapuram for allegedly blocking Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s convoy and misbehaving with him.
Drawing a parallel between the incident that led to the arrest of Anilkumar, alias Chenthi Anil, and a clash that took place during an event attended by then Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, Mr. Thomas questioned Mr. Satheesan for allegedly having his own party worker arrested for protesting against him.
“Does the Chembazhanthi protest come anywhere near what the ‘reformists’ did to K. Karunakaran when he was Chief Minister?” Mr. Thomas asked in a social media post, reminding Mr. Satheesan that he was not only the Chief Minister but also a Congress leader.
The former Union Minister was referring to an alleged clash between a group of Congress workers and policemen in plainclothes at a religious harmony event in Ernakulam which was attended by Karunakaran, Oommen Chandy, and other senior Congress leaders. The event was organised by the Ernakulam District Congress Committee when Mr. Thomas was its president, he said.
Mr. Thomas said the meeting had to be dispersed after supporters of reformist groups allegedly created a ruckus deliberately. He said though the then police commissioner wanted to register a case against those who caused the trouble, Karunakaran dissuaded him. “They are all Congress workers. Things like this happen. No need to register a case,” Mr. Thomas quoted Karunakaran as saying.
He said Karunakaran’s stand matched that of a leader.
Mr. Anilkumar, a former member of the Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee, was expelled from the party on Saturday (August 29, 2026) after he, along with a group of people, allegedly blocked Mr. Satheesan’s convoy for reportedly declining to attend the Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti celebrations planned at Chenthi. The incident occurred when the Chief Minister was on his way to the Sree Narayana Gurukulam at Chempazhanthy for the Jayanti celebrations on Friday (August 28, 2026) evening.
Published – August 30, 2026 01:08 am IST
