Kerala Youth Congress workers wave black flags outside CM Vijayan’s guest house

Protesters detained immediately as security had already been enhanced in the wake of earlier protests over the FY24 budget.

Members of the Youth Congress waved black flags and clashed with police outside a guesthouse in Kerala's Kochi - in which chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was staying - to protest against the state's budget for the next fiscal year.

Protestors being detained by Kerala police outside CM Pinarayi Vijayan's Ernakulam guest house.

The protesters were detained immediately as security had already been enhanced outside the guesthouse in the wake of earlier protests. It was not immediately clear if the chief minister was in the guesthouse at the time.

Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed police grabbing protesters and taking them into custody amid shouting and chanting of anti-government slogans. At least two men were taken away by police vehicles.

Protests erupted Friday too, after the state government presented its budget for FY24; workers from Youth Congress and those from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Yuva Morcha protested outside the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.

The leader of the opposition in the state's Legislative Assembly, VD Satheesan, slammed the Pinarayi Vijayan government over the budget announcement.

Among other measures proposed was a 'social security cess' on the sale of fuel, liquor, motorcycles, and electricity to mobilise additional revenue.

Overall Balagopal projected revenue receipt of ₹1.35 lakh crore and expenditure of ₹1.76 lakh crore for a cumulative deficit of ₹82.25 crore.

Congress leader and former union finance minister P Chidambaram took a jab at the ruling CPIM, calling the annual budget a 'Faustian bargain'.