Shashi Tharoor says he was not allowed into temple with PM Modi

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has alleged that he and other local leaders were not allowed to enter Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Kerala visit on Tuesday.

The matter came to light after the MP from Thiruvananthapuram took to Twitter and accused the Prime Minister’s Office of not letting him enter the temple on Tuesday.

“Received Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Sree PadmanabhaSwamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram for the unveiling of a plaque of the Swadesh Darshan project. But when the local MP, MLA and mayor were to enter the temple with him for darshan, we learned that the PMO had cut us from the list,” he tweeted.

The prime minister offered prayers at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple on Tuesday, while he was in the state to inaugurate developmental projects. Modi, who was accompanied by Governor Justice P Sathasivam and state Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran, entered the sprawling shrine through the eastern entrance and spent about 20 minutes there.

Attacking the PM Modi over alleged ignorance of local leaders, Tharoor said, “It seems that under the BJP even God must serve a political purpose and members of other parties must not be allowed to worship in the prime ministerial presence.”

Tharoor has been a critic of PM Modi with his statements often courting controversy.

Last year, Tharoor had triggered a row when he claimed at an "unnamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh source" had compared the PM with a scorpion sitting on a Shiv Linga.