AAP workers protest outside BJP office in Thiruvananthapuram; burn PM Modi's effigy

Thiruvananthapuram: Tense moments prevailed outside the BJP state headquarters in the heart of the state capital on Wednesday after hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers marched there and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the same time, a small group of BJP workers came out of the party office at Mararji Bhavan here and tried to confront the protesting AAP activists.

The police prevented both sides from clashing with each other by acting as a barrier between the two groups.

The AAP activists were protesting against the recent arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.

They marched to the BJP office from East Fort here after a 'No Vote for BJP' programme inaugurated by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

Visuals of the protest on social media showed a BJP worker carrying a big rock as he attempted to get close to the AAP activists, but the police personnel took away the stone and removed him from the area.

The AAP activists shouted slogans against the Modi administration and in favour of the INDIA bloc, while the BJP workers responded with slogans in favour of their party and the PM.

As both sides shouted slogans against each other, the AAP activists beat an effigy of Modi with brooms and then set it on fire, further incensing the BJP workers there who repeatedly tried to get near the protestors, but were stopped by the police.

Some of the BJP workers also got into a scuffle with the police, which used lathis against them briefly.

After burning the effigy, the AAP activists continued to block the road in front of the BJP office for some time and later some of them were removed from there by the police.