K-Rail protests will be led by the opposition in Kerala

On Friday, Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, announced that the Opposition was leading the protests against his ambitious K-Rail project.

As per NITI Aayog, the project is expected to cost Rs 1.24 lakh crore by 2025, when the 529.45 km corridor is completed, connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod.

The entire opposition turned out to protest the ruling CPI-M during Friday's conclusion of the current Assembly session, raising slogans against K-Rail

Unabated, Vijayan, visibly furious, accused his opponents of creating confusion and leading a "slander" campaign against the project.

Speaker M.B. Rajesh had to temporarily stop the proceedings after M.B. Rajesh's instructions were ignored. But when the proceedings resumed, chaos reigned, and he attacked the Leader of Opposition for Vijayan's autocratic style.

He vowed to make sure Vijayan announced the call for his dream project before it was too late.

"Now that we have led the protest of the people, we will force you to shelve it. Our state-wide protests have been announced, and we will carry them out to their logical conclusion," said Satheesan.

On Thursday, the protests in Changnacherry, Kottayam district, turned ugly after officers clashed with protesters. The locality is one of the proposed passing points for K-Rail.

There have been a number of protests in the past few days across the state, and on Friday, Metroman E.Sreedharan led the BJP protesters in Trissur and accused Vijayan of the current unrest.

"It's the arrogance of Vijayan which is root cause of the protests and what happened at Changnacherry on Thursday when women and children were roughed up does not augur well at all," added Sreedharan.

Congress and the BJP have both announced massive protests against the project despite the Assembly session being over and Covid protocols being loosened.