CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Devaswom Minister differ on Sabari poll impact

Kochi: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran have openly differed in their assessment over the impact of the Sabarimala issue on the outcome of the Lok Sabha election.

Mr Vijayan said the row over young women's entry into the temple, which had spilled over on to the streets with Ayyappa slogans, would not reflect on the outcome. He was confident that the LDF would register an impressive win though exit polls suggest the tally would be around five seats out of 20. The LDF had won 8 seats in the last LS polls.

“The things that had happened in Sabarimala should have been avoided. Everyone knows who was behind those incidents, which should not have happened in the hill shrine” Mr Vijayan said. “We have taken a stand to protect the Ayyappa shrine. The pilgrims will have a better Sabarimala season next time as reconstruction and developmental activities are going on,” he said.

However, Mr Surendran iterated that Sabarimala had influenced the polls. “The Sabarimala issue was a factor because the fanatics could fool people over this issue. I think a major section was misled by them,” Mr Surendran told the media Kochi. He did not name the Sangh Parivar but alleged that communal forces had run a false propaganda, accusing the LDF of being unjust to the faithful on Sabarimala.

 “But people now have started realizing the truth,” he said. On January 2, two women of the traditionally-barred age group trekked the hill and offered prayers at the shrine, leading to widespread violence across the state.

The divergent views are seen in the context of the Chief Minister’s remark at the height of the Sabarimala agitation that “it is not a question of votes but one of principles”. He had said the Government, after committing to abide by the top court decision, could not have taken a different stand subsequently.

But some of his own colleagues in the party and the Government felt that his stand was a huge electoral gambit because a large section of people, the majority of them women, considers that young women’s entry at the hill shrine amounted to defiling the holy precincts.  Now, if the crucial outcome is on the lines of exit forecast, Mr Vijayan would have to take up the major responsibility for what he considers a historic and progressive stance.