The much awaited golden letter day of Kerala turned sour within hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the Vande Bharat Express connecting Thiruvananthapuram in the south with Kasaragod in the north.
Congress workers defaced the state-of-the-art train by pasting larger than life size posters of V K Sreekantan, the member of parliament from Palakkad portraying him as the “hero” who brought Vande Bharat to Kerala. When the train stopped at Shornur, the railway junction that comes under Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency, fans and followers threw to the winds all safety norms and posted the entire windshields of the trains with the MP’s posters.
“No incidents of this magnitude has been reported from anywhere in the country where Vande Bharat Expresses are plying,” said a senior Railway official of Thiruvananthapuram Division. Sreekandan, known for his short temper, had warned the Railway officials that he and his youth brigade would block the train if no stop was allocated to the train at Shornur. Similarly, veteran Congress leader Suresh Kodikkunnil MP led a group of partymen to Chenganur Railway Station demanding that Vande Bharat should stop at the station.
