Sabarimala: Massive BJP protest rally

'We will meet each villager in Kerala and chalk out a massive agitation plan to protect the Sabarimala temple.'

Thousands of Bharatiya Janata Party members on Monday marched to the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram to protest the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all age groups entry into the Sabarimala shrine.

In another development, the Travancore Devaswom Board convened a meeting of various stakeholders of the shrine including the Tantri (head priest)'s family, the Pandalam royals and the Ayyappa Seva Sangam in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

The meeting, called to discuss the preparations of the three-month-long annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrim season starting from November 17, was also expected to discuss the recent apex court order.

BJP activists, including a large number of women and children, marched to the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, chanting Lord Ayyappa hymns and holding garlanded pictures of the deity.

The mammoth march, which started last week from Pandalam, was in protest against the state government's decision to implement the apex court order.

The BJP has alleged that the attempt to implement the judgement was a 'conspiracy' to destroy the hillock shrine which lakhs of people from the country and abroad visit during the three-month pilgrim season beginning mid-November.

Senior National Democratic Alliance leaders including actor-MP Suresh Gopi and Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena chief Thushar Vellappally were in the forefront of the march, which was led by state BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai.

If the state government failed to resolve the issue at the earliest, the agitation would take a new turn, Pillai warned.

"We will meet each villager in Kerala and chalk out a massive agitation plan to protect the Sabarimala temple, its centuries-old traditions and the sentiments of Lord Ayyappa devotees," Pillai said.

Claiming that the first phase of the Sabarimala stir was a major 'milestone,' the BJP said if the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala does not find a solution in the next 24 hours, the NDA would chalk out a 'massive' agitation plan to reach its goal.

The Sabarimala temple, which opens on the evening of October 17, will shut on October 22 after the five-day monthly pooja during the Malayalam month of 'Thulam'.

Kerala has witnessed a series of protests by various groups demanding that the sanctity of the Sabarimala temple rituals be protected.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, lifted the ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.