Alappuzha (Kerala), March 15 (IANS): A Congress worker was hacked to death on Tuesday in Alappuzha district of Kerala, following which a few people belonging to a left organisation have been detained, a senior police official said.

"Victim Sunil Kumar was asleep at his home near Cheppad when he was called out by a group of people around 2 a.m. and hacked to death. We have taken into custody a few people, belonging to the youth wing of the CPI-M," a top Alappuzha district police official, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS. 

The Congress has called for a daylong shutdown in Cheppad in protest against the crime.

Sources said tension between Congress and CPI-M supporters in Cheppad area was brewing for the last one month. The murder was a likely fallout of political rivalry in the area.

State Congress president V.M. Sudheeran said the party worker had been brutally killed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters.

"This gruesome incident is the latest example of the way the CPI-M is continuing its policy of killing its political adversaries. It is a shame that the CPI-M is engaging in such heinous acts. The need of the hour is for the people to come forward to oppose this policy of the CPI-M," Sudheeran said in a press release here on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, police were looking for other suspects involved in the crime.