Important news developments from Kerala today

Here are the important news developments to follow on Thursday, April 7, 2022

The second day of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will see discussions on a draft political resolution that, among other subjects, proposes a coalition of regional parties as a secular national alternative to the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.

Congress veteran Professor K. V. Thomas will meet the press in Kochi at 11 am, possibly to announce whether he would defy the All-India Congress Committee's (AICC) ban and attend a seminar on challenges to federalism at the CPI(M) party congress on Saturday.

Mr. Thomas's ambivalence over whether he would accept the CPI(M) 's invitation to speak at the seminar had put the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on tenterhooks.

CPI(M) district secretary (Kannur) M. V. Jayarajan's statement that Mr. Thomas would not find himself on the street if he accepted the CPI(M) invitation had added more theatre to the unfolding political drama.

Congress workers will lay a token siege to the Raj Bhavan to protest the Centre's failure to curb spiralling fuel and cooking gas prices. KPCC president K. Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan will address the protestors.

The Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled grama panchayat in Kallikad has initiated a dawn-to-dusk hartal to protest the Centre's move to declare large swathes of the local body abutting the Neyyar and Peppara wildlife reserves as an eco-sensitive zone.

High Court to hear a bail plea moved by "fake antiquities dealer" and alleged confidence trickster Monson Mavunkal in a POSCO case registered against him by the State police.