Hindustan Times via Getty Images Supporters and workers holding placard during the protest against brutal attack on RSS-BJP workers in Kerala, at Kerala Bhavan on January 24, 2017 in New Delhi.

The Kannur district in northern Kerala has been a hotbed of political violence between the ruling CPM and the RSS/BJP for nearly five decades. Burdened with a legacy of violent resistance against the British rule and brutal landlordism, the region had been historically different from the relatively peaceful and socio-economically advanced princely states part of Kerala. However, two days ago, the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, in the southernmost tip of the state, has witnessed "Kannur style" violence that has pushed the ruling CPM-led government into a minor crisis. In an unprecedented move, the governor summoned both the chief minister and the state police chief to the Raj Bhavan to express his concern and demand immediate action. The sudden outburst of violence in Thiruvananthapuram, which included damage of properties of both parties and their cadres and a murder of an RSS worker, somewhat validated a campaign the BJP had launched both in the state and at the centre a few months ago that the CPM was unleashing violence against its opponents.

Hindustan Times via Getty Images Supporters and workers holding placard during the protest against brutal attack on RSS-BJP workers in Kerala on January 24, 2017 in New Delhi.

In June, when the BJP president Amit Shah visited the state, his sole talking point was the alleged violence by the CPM. He held the party responsible for all the political violence in the state. Several central leaders and ministers also echoed his sentiment with an apparent threat of central intervention. The Thiruvananthapuram violence, in which both the CPM and the RSS/BJP have been equally responsible, is a tactical blunder by the former because it proved the latter right. All these years, the RSS and BJP have been complaining that it's the CPM's intolerance to their growth in Kannur that had led to the murders and violence in the district. Now, they say the same about Thiruvananthapuram because the state capital is emerging as a potential stronghold of the BJP. They even allege that some leaders from Kannur are planning and executing the violence against them. The mainstream media also have bought the expedient idea that a peaceful and quaint Thiruvananthapuram is being converted into another Kannur. The presence of a number of leaders from Kannur, who are seemingly more intolerant than the others in their public behaviour, handling the party and government affairs in the state capital lends some credence to this popular belief. The mainstream media also have bought the expedient idea that a peaceful and quaint Thiruvananthapuram is being converted into another Kannur. Kannur is a blemish for the party's reputation because no other place in the country has such a record of sustained and sanguineous animosity between two political parties. The violence in the district, that is one of the poorest in the state, has claimed more than 300 people, maimed many and led to large scale damage of properties. Although the loss of lives and damage of properties are on an even keel, the CPM claims a moral upper-hand by saying that it's paying the price for resisting BJP's communal politics. The same argument was repeated in Thiruvananthapuram too.

Pacific Press via Getty Images Activists of Manabadhikar Raksha Manch take part in a silent rally to protest against brutal killing of RSS karyakartas in Kerala by leftists.