THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minor tension erupted at Neyyattinkara town when the police tried to disperse the Congress workers, who were engaged in ‘Kottikalasam’ after 6pm, which is the cut-off time for public campaigning.
The tension erupted towards the end of the ‘kalashakottu’ when the workers of the Congress and its feeder outfits refused to disperse.
Some of the workers climbed on top of the KSRTC buses that were stuck in the traffic block.The police resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd. The party workers tried to lock horns with the cops, which further raised tension. However, the issue was resolved after the senior cops and party leaders intervened.
Earlier, the CPM and BJP workers got into a mild tiff, but before it evolved into a clash, the cops intervened and diffused the tension.
The ‘Kottikalasham’ largely passed off peacefully in other parts of the district. In Peroorkada, which hosted exuberant last-minute public campaigns by all the three fronts, there was a slight altercation between the CPM and BJP workers. The presence of the three leading candidates raised the tempo of celebrations there. UDF’s Shashi Tharoor, flanked by Oommen Chandy’s daughter Achu Oommen, waved at the party workers from an elevated crane, taking the high decibel celebration to a crescendo. NDA’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar also climbed atop a crane to pep up the enthusiastic BJP workers.
LDF candidate Pannyan Raveendran attended the ‘Kalashakottu’ in an open vehicle.