Kerala's Palakkad Municipality witnesses unruly scenes over bypoll result

Palakkad (Kerala), Nov 26 (PTI) The BJP-ruled municipality in Palakkad on Tuesday witnessed unruly scenes as the councillors of the saffron party, the CPI(M) and the Congress engaged in a scuffle inside the council hall over the recent bypoll result.
    Congress-UDF's Rahul Mamkootathil achieved a significant victory, pushing the BJP-led NDA and the CPI-headed LDF candidates into second and third positions respectively in the recently held by-election in Palakkad Assemby segment.
    As the council meeting progressed here, a war of words erupted between the ruling and the opposition members over the bypoll result and the loss of votes by the BJP compared to the previous election.
    The turmoil began when some CPI(M) councillors asked where the BJP votes had gone this time.
    Giving a tit-for-tat reply, the BJP members reportedly asked what authority the Marxist party members have to ask about their internal matters.
    The raging arguments finally ended up in a scuffle between the members of all the three parties.
    In the television visuals, it could be seen that angry councillors are pushing each other and using objectionable terms against their political opponents.
    Chairperson Prameela Sasidharan's repeated requests to the councillors to go back to their seats went in vain.
    It took some time for the councillors to end the scuffle and go back to their respective seats.
    A significant loss in the BJP's vote share in the recent by-election in Palakkad Assembly triggered strong reactions on Monday from the local leaders, who raised questions on the selection of the candidate and criticised the state party president, K Surendran, who was, however, backed by the national leadership.
    In the bypoll, BJP's Krishnakumar secured 39,549 votes (28.63 per cent), while Congress candidate Mamkootathil won with 58,389 votes (42.27 per cent). CPI(M)-backed P Sarin garnered 37,293 votes (27 per cent).

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)