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Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear during his tour on Tuesday to Kerala that Sabarimala would be the main agenda for campaigning for Lok Sabha elections. The elections are due soon.
The visit came a day after the annual 'Makaravilakku' festival at the Sabarimala temple. He would also offer prayers at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram.
The row surrounding the temple was triggered after the historic September 2018 order by the Supreme Court.
The verdict allowed the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 to the hill shrine, traditionally banned till then.
The BJP, along with the Congress, supported protests against the court order, accusing the Left Democratic Front (LDF) administration of ignoring public sentiments while implementing the order.
On Tuesday, Modi inaugurated a 13 kilometre (km) long bypass in Kerala’s Kollam district.
Political observers stated that there was a lack of flourish or aggression in the Prime Minister’s address to BJP workers at Kollam when he took on the CPI(M) and the Congress.
They observed that post the Sabarimala issue, the state BJP unit has been targeting to reach out to the 'neutral and non-committed' Hindu voters who have traditionally sided with either the Congress or the CPI(M).
Political observers felt that the Prime Minister also put paid to expectations that he would respond to demands that the Centre promulgate an ordinance to restore status quo at Sabarimala.
State BJP President, PS Sreedharan Pillai, made an appeal in his address about 'police excesses' on BJP workers.
Pillai had switched to English midway and said that over 30,000 false cases have been foisted on these workers and more than 1,000 were languishing in jail.
"The Communist government is bypassing the Constitution. We hope that this statesman here would show them that it would be the Constitution that shall prevail," he said addressing Modi.
Prime Minister Modi said that the BJP ‘karyakartha’ cannot be taken for granted.
"For sometime now, the entire nation has been talking about Sabarimala. The state government's conduct will go down in history as one of the most shameful by any party and government,” Modi said.
The Communist and Congress models of governance were 'efficient models' of 'corruption' and 'inefficient governance,' he said.
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