VT Balram, Congress’s young MLA from Thrithala is nothing short of a cyber warrior cum troll rolled into one. Few days ago, a post by Balram trolling CPI (M) on a Congress supporters closed Facebook forum was leaked out, starting a cyber war of sorts. The background to the entire controversy is the murder of a Congress ‘A’ group worker by a Congress ‘I’ group worker, and stinging criticism by CPI(M) General Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. Reacting to Pinarayi, Balram exhorted party workers to find similar instances of group wars in CPI(M). “Please check if there were any murders following the group rivalry in the CPM or in clashes between the CPM and the CPI. Treat this as an urgent matter. It is very important for our party to get out of this imbroglio. Everyone should post message portraying the CPM as the chief proponent of bloody politics and should participate in all the discussions (on Facebook) as they can. Violence can erupt at any time. However, our focus should be on the difference between the Congress and the CPM in responding to that and protecting the accused,” (Translation from TNIE story) Balram’s open request to turn the attention away from a murder surprised many and his supporters claimed it was a fake post. But the MLA soon owned up, making the Left brigade see red. And if this wasn’t enough, Balram later poked fun at Pinarayi Vijayan, this time with a post on his own Facebook account. Taunting Vijayan’s take over violence in CPI(M) politics, Balram called it one of the best jokes he had heard in recent times. He also compared Pinarayi’s statement calling Congress violent as funny as BJP leader Amit Shah’s statement over ‘Acche Din’. Calling CPI (M) a violent party, Balram explained many infamous political killings that happened inside CPI (M) and those in which party cardes were the accused. He called CPI (M) a party that holds committee meetings to decide on whether and how to kill people who stand against them. Balram’s reaction irked party workers as they were not able to tolerate a young leader attacking Pinarayi Vijayan, a senior and powerful communist leader. Since then the young MLA has been facing the wrath of CPI (M) workers in social media. He had to face massive trolling and many started creating memes insulting Balram. Unwilling to take a step back, Balram has said that he will not withdraw the controversial post. And this surely will start the next round of the battle.