“Girls below the age of 10 live in this house. BJP members should kindly not come here seeking votes.”
“***, this country is mourning for you. No entry for Sanghis. We have girl children in the house.”
“There are girl children in this house. BJP members who come seeking for votes, please stand outside the gate.”
Handwritten posters with these sentences written on it appeared in front of some houses in two constituencies in Kerala. The posters first appeared in Kamachal, in Vamanapuram panchayat, a CPI (M) stronghold.
CPI (M) members in the area told TNM that they were agitated at the support pouring in for Unnao and Kathua rapists from BJP and its supporters.
"We did it as a protest against the rape of the little girl. We distributed the posters to nearly 20 houses, these were not our members. But all of them willingly exhibited outside their houses," Kannan, a CPI (M) member said.
As pictures of these posters started doing rounds on Whatsapp, a couple of youngsters in Chengannur constituency started writing similar messages. Soon, CPI (M) and Congress members and a few people not affiliated to any political party stuck similar messages on their houses.
In Chengannur, the messages were not just about Asifa and Unnao, but also told BJP leaders and cadres not to come asking for votes. Chengannur is all set for high-pitched by-election which BJP President Amit Shah has termed as the first step to BJP’s ‘Mission Kerala’.
"We made the posters in the night and distributed in the morning. By evening, Chengannur party members did the same" Kannan said.
However, in both constituencies, non-party members too were willing to put up the posters in their houses, says CPI (M).
“This is not a political campaign. All of us started this together. This includes CPI (M), Congress and even those not affiliated to any party. Two or three youngsters started this protest and everybody just followed,” Nasir, CPI(M), General Secretary, Alappuzha said.
TOI reported that in Chengannur, most of the posters were found in Puliyoor region in the constituency and later appeared in Anaganwadi in Cherthala, in Alappuzha district.
The Poster War
BJP leaders however say that the poster war isn’t new to Chengannur. They say that they had put up posters asking CPI(M) men not to enter their homes after a pregnant woman had to undergo abortion, following an attack.
Twenty-eight-year-old Calicut resident Josna Shibi had to undergo a forced abortion because she was kicked in the stomach allegedly by a local CPI (M) leader, the state police arrested seven CPI (M) activists in the case in February.
(This story was first published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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