A BJP leader assassinated in front of his daughter in Alappuzha, Kerala

Vinodini, the mother of state BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas, had gone to the local temple for a puja on Sunday morning. "Brother (Ranjith) was to attend the first meeting of the committee of (BJP) OBC Morcha in Kochi. The day should have been an auspicious one for our family…" his brother Abhijith, an IT professional, said.

Ranjith was assassinated on Sunday, allegedly by SDPI activists in reprisal for the night before's assassination of their state secretary, K S Shan.

Ranjith had come home on Sunday morning after dropping off his elder daughter, Bhagya, at her tuition lessons, according to his brother. Until that point, nothing seemed out of the norm to the family.

"There was no reason for Ranjith to panic," said an acquaintance at the family's home on Monday. "He had never been involved in any criminal case. (But) when an SDPI state-level leader (Shan) was killed, the retaliating gang was looking for a BJP leader of the same stature…"

Ranjith, who is known in Alappuzha as a suave face of the BJP, was set to begin a new chapter in his political career on Sunday after being named state secretary of the BJP's state OBC Morcha.

The gang, according to Abhijith, hit his brother with a hammer on the head and hacked him aimlessly while also vandalising the house. In front of his mother, wife, and younger daughter, the gang hacked Ranjith to death and scarred his face with various wounds, he claimed.

Ranjith's younger daughter, Hridya, a Class VI student, witnessed the attack while Bhagya was at tuition courses, according to Abhijith.

"When she came running to the drawing room, the gang brandished a sword against her. When my mother fell down in the attack, the gang pressed a chair against her face,'' he said.

Ranjith, who grew to become a leader from the Dheevara fishermen caste, was a lawyer, and his wife Lisha is also an advocate in Alappuzha.

On Monday evening, the BJP worker's body was cremated in the grounds of the family's ancestral home in the district of Arattupuzha.