The Railway Protection Force (RPF) registered a case after Congress workers pasted posters of Palakkad MP VK Sreekandan on the Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod Vande Bharat Express train when it reached Shoranur Junction on Tuesday, reported news agency ANI.
Posters praising the Congress MP were allegedly pasted on the Vande Bharat Express when the train reached the station, where Sreekandan and his supporters were present to welcome the train’s arrival.
Visuals aired by television channels showed RPF personnel removing the posters.
The semi-high speed train was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Thiruvananthapuram, in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor, on Tuesday. The state’s first Vande Bharat Express connects the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram with Kasaragod, the northernmost district. and will have halts at Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town, Thrissur, Shoranur Junction, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod.
PM Modi after flagging off the train from platform 1 of the railway station, also later interacted with a group of school children inside one of the coaches of the train.
The Vande Bharat Express has been projected by many as an alternative to the LDP government’s ambitious semi-high speed rail corridor, Silver Line.
Condemning the incident, BJP state president K Surendran alleged that it was the action of the MP’s supporters, saying how a MP and his followers can have a “dirty mind”.
Hitting out, Sreekandan said that he had not authorised anyone to paste the posters in the Vande Bharat train and alleged that the saffron party was deliberately creating a controversy.