THE Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has condemned the “political murder” of one of its branch secretaries, who was stabbed to death on Sunday.

Puthussery branch secretary PU Sanoop, 26, was “killed by Sangh Parivar criminals,” the party said, using a term that encompasses a range of Hindu chauvinist gangs and militias linked to India’s ruling BJP. The attack took place in Thrissur, Kerala.

Four others were also attacked, with one in critical condition, it said. 

Keralan Local Self-Government Minister AC Moideen, a CPI-M member in Kerala’s communist-led state government, said: “It’s a political murder. Bajrang Dal activists and some members of right-wing groups committed this heinous crime.”

Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad religious militia which is itself part of the “RSS family” of Hindu nationalist organisations, denied having any activists in the area at the time.

Spokesman B Gopalakrishnan of the BJP, a party that was first formed as the political wing of the RSS, claimed the CPI-M was blaming Hindu nationalists as a distraction because it was “on the back foot” and said the death occurred during “a clash between two groups of goons.”

Political violence is nothing new in Kerala, where 85 CPI-M members and 65 BJP and RSS militants have been killed since 2001.

The RSS unleashed widespread violence against feminists and communists last year in a series of attacks prompted by the 5.5 million-strong “women’s wall” organised by Keralan communists as a women’s rights demonstration.