Thiruvananthapuram: With reports from Kerala indicating that the Sabarimala issue may favour the Congress in many seats, the party has shifted gears to make the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa a central issue in the poll campaign, just days ahead of the April 23 voting.
Ayyappa devotees across the State are determined to teach the CPM a lesson as the temple issue has touched the emotions of a wide section of the Hindu community. They will use their franchise to register their protest against the government, according to the Congress think-tank.
In constituencies where the BJP is not strong, the Sabarimala wave will give dividends to the Congress, the party feels. Signs emerging from the campaign scenario point to a significant shift in voting behaviour in at least 10 constituencies in the state against the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Front Government in Kerala.
Click here for latest updates on Lok Sabha Elections 2019
The Sabarimala Karma Samiti is conducting a spirited campaign urging the voters to use their vote as a weapon to protest against the government. Swami Chidananda Puri, Sabarimala Karma Samiti patron and seer of Kolathur Advaithashram, has already given a call to the devotees to vote for the UDF to ensure the LDF’s defeat in constituencies where the BJP is not strong.
This is why in the last lap of campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has pushed Sabarimala to the centre stage matching the BJP’s stand and clearly indicating that the grand old party would reinstate the age bar on women seeking darshan at Sabarimala, if voted to power.
The Congress stand is diametrically opposite to the stand that was taken by party president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi who had strongly pitched for entry of women in all age grou ps into the temple. But later they went silent and allowed the Kerala unit to take a shrill stand on the issue.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah strongly pitched for protecting traditions and rituals in Sabarimala that bans entry of women in the 10 to 50 age group, Congress party’s Opposition leader in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala has partially hijacked the issue to lure the upset and angry believers by promising that the party would take Constitutional route to restore the ban on young women’s entry.
“I categorically state that if the Rahul Gandhi-led UPA Government comes to power at the Centre, we’ll enact a legislation to preserve the customs and traditions of the temple,” Chennithala said at a hurriedly-convened press briefing on Friday.
Chennithatla’s statement comes within 24 hours of Modi’s promise of “Constitutional support” to protect devotees’ faith. The party’s strident move comes after reports and surveys indicated that in constituencies where the BJP had no chance to win, the Ayyappa devotees may swing the vote in favour of the Congress.
The BJP is pinning hopes on four constituencies – Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur and Palakkad – populated by the majority Hindu community. But in the rest of 16 seats, the Ayyappa votes may go into the kitty of the Congress. With a ”Rahul wave in north Kerala and Sabarimala in other parts of the state, the Congress hopes to bag 12-14 seats.
The Left Democratic Front led by Vijayan has little to say. The CPM is desperately trying to convince voters the government was only implementing the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups to enter the hill shrine. But that is not paying off because the same government is sitting on a Supreme Court order in a church dispute.
There is also a strong campaign that has caught the attention of the voters – that the Vijayan government deliberately smuggled in two women into the hill shrine during the holy period of Mandalam in November-December last to upset the Hindu devotees. May 23 results will indicate on whose side God is in God’s Own Country.
