It has emerged that the ongoing violence against BJP-RSS workers, allegedly by CPM men in Kerala, has moved on from random acts of violence and into the homes of honest families just because of their political affiliation.

Mail Today has found that a social boycott of victims' families is the new tool adopted by the CPM to sustain its dominance in what they call 'party villages'.

More than 100 'party villages' exist in Kannur district alone with the CPM ruling them all.

Father and child of Rajesh, a BJP worker who was recently hacked to death allegedly by CPI(M) cadre

Delhi BJP supporters shouting slogans against CPI(M) leadership to protest the attacks on RSS workers in Kerala at CPI(M) HQ at Gole Market on October 10, 2016 in New Delhi, India (stock photo)

With their robust ground-level intelligence network, the CPM cadres identify the BJP/RSS supporters and force them out of the villages by denying them basic amenities.

As locals put it, one has to either live as per the party diktats or leave the village. The social atrocity against the families has only aggravated in the last five years with a gradual increase in the votes for the BJP-RSS combine in Kerala.

Violence in the area has claimed many victims

The party does not allow the villagers to cooperate with ostracised families. Those who attend any events such as marriages and funerals in the houses of such non-members are marked out, said C Chandrasekhar, RSS head in Kannur district.

'In party villages, nobody is allowed to have a different political ideology. If anybody is found to be supporting or sympathising with the opposition parties, he is socially rejected. This means no supply of milk, vegetable, fish or any other daily household needs,' he added.

'The BJP leadership is indulging in doublespeak on the clashes between CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers in Kerala. It is the RSS which has initiated killings in the state. 13 CPI(M) workers have been killed by the RSS men,' the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement

Last week, when Arun Jaitley visited the families of slain RSS workers in Kerala, senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had slammed the BJP saying it was the saffron party's propaganda to create unrest in the state.

Baby, the widow of E Santosh who was hacked to death in Andallur village near Dharmadom in Kannur this January, narrates her ordeal.

'I had to leave the village with my 13-year-old daughter after they (CPM activists) killed my husband. Nobody in the village was ready to help,' she said.

Anger after the murder of a RSS member

Santosh's daughter Vismaya Santosh was admitted to another school fearing the CPM activists.

The family has no source of livelihood; education of the girl and family's financial needs are taken care of by the BJP and RSS. Abhilash, a local BJP worker in Dharmadom, and a neighbour of the family told Mail Today that Santosh was killed because he had contested a local body election wherein he secured nearly 100 votes in Andallur village which is fiercely dominated by CPM.

'Santosh had been actively associated with the BJP for many years but the CPM workers were furious over his contesting the elections.

'He was killed on the night of January 18 when he was alone in his house,' Abhilash said.

Similarly, an autorickshaw driver and three other members of his family were brutally attacked in another CPM stronghold Kodiyari village after he transported a BJP worker to hospital who was attacked by CPM men.

'His limbs were chopped off and his family wanted to take him to Bengaluru for limb transplant. My father transported the victim to railway station in his autorickshaw.

Enraged over this, the CPM men attacked our house and severely injured all in the family,' said Sajesh and Sarosh, two brothers who were axed by attackers in 2009.

'Kannur's party villages are a law unto themselves. Here the party controls the lives of the people. It is the CPM leaders who decide who buys or sells properties or who gets to attend marriages and funerals and who marries whom,' said O Rajagopala, the lone BJP MLA in Kerala state Assembly.

A BJP leader in Kannur said CPM workers had killed an old woman for attending the funeral of Uthaman, who was murdered by the CPM men in 2002. The woman, who hailed from the party village at Kalathodu, was a relative of Uthaman.

His son Remith was stabbed to death at Pinarayi recently. Incidentally, Pinarayi is the native place of the incumbent Kerala chief minister P Vijayan.