Thiruvananthapuram: Bypoll will be verdict on government

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has reiterated that the state government would stand by the Supreme Court order allowing all women into Sabarimala temple.

Speaking to reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting here on Thursday, he said that the government was not against the believers but bound to follow the court verdicts. If the apex court changes its stand, the government should obey that also. This was the same stance taken in the past too, he clarified.

He said the BJP was trying to politicise the issue to turn the tide against the government. However, the Union government (that it leads) would not bring an ordinance to maintain the status quo.

He said the BJP was cheating people of Kerala by giving false promises. CPM’s stand that it would support the believers was not new either. “Someone tried to establish that we are against the believers. This campaign had become vital during the Lok Sabha elections. The self-criticism was on the lack of caution on our part. However, there was no change in the stand,” he said.

He said Pala by-election result would be an assessment of people on his government's performance and hence very crucial.

"People will stand by the LDF," he said. "We will fight the elections confidently. The UDF should not believe that things will be easy for them as they won the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha elections."

He justified his intervention to secure the release of Tushar Vellappally, held in Ajman for financial fraud, on bail saying it was an issue related to Malayalis in the Gulf landing in jail. But he was vague in his response as to whether he would intervene in the case in which the son of Gokulam Gopalan who was caught in Muscat.