BJP candidate offers tributes at Left’s Punnapara memorial, triggers row

Alappuzha (Kerala):  A controversy erupted in Kerala on Friday after a BJP candidate paid floral tributes at the famous Punnapra Vayalar Smriti memorial, jointly managed by the CPI(M) and the CPI, ahead of filing his nomination papers from Alappuzha assembly seat for the April 6 polls.
The memorial at Valiya Chudukadu here was built in memory of Communists killed during their movement against the ‘misrule’ of Sir C P Ramaswami Iyer, the prime minister of erstwhile Princely state of Travancore in 1946.
Sandeep Vachaspati, the BJP nominee, paid floral tributes and allegedly raised “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogan at the place.
The Left parties condemned Vachaspati’s act, accusing him of ‘trespassing’ into the memorial and aiming to ‘humiliate’ hundreds of Communist party members martyred during the uprising, while a police complaint was lodged against him by the CPI district secretary.
Vachaspati defended his act and alleged the memorial was the symbol of “biggest betrayal by the Communist leaders who had fled the scene after putting their innocent followers belonging to the Scheduled Castes and backward communities to face the guns of the Army.
The BJP candidate said he visited the place to pay tributes to those “innocent souls” before filing his nomination.