The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala said that the Opposition, the Congress party has only hurt its own cause by siding with the protests spearheaded by the BJP-NDP over the Sabarimala issue. A Vijayaraghavan, LDF convenor, said here that the single-point agenda of this ‘unholy alliance’ is the ouster of the government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

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He ridiculed the Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala for exhorting Congress workers to desert the party and make a beeline to the rival BJP and RSS camps. He also said that Chennaithala is trying to mislead devotees of Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimala. The LDF convenor also warned the latter against hatching any plot to ‘encore on the Vimochana Samaram’ (liberation struggle) against the first elected State government in 1958-59.

The reference was to the anti-Communist agitation against the government led by the Marxist supremo EMS Namboodiripad by the Catholic Church, the Nair Service Society, and the Indian Union Muslim League.

It was also backed by the Indian National Congress, who would eventually join under the banner to launch the United Democratic Front (UDF), who, along with LDF, has since ruled the State by turn.

BJP State president and NDA Chairman PS Sreedharan Pillai is leading the ‘long march’ of devotees and activists from Pandalam in central Kerala, birth place of Lord Ayyappa, to the State capital. The march entered the second day on Thursday. The five-day march received a major boost after prominent NDA partner, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) of the Ezhava community affirmed its unstinted support.

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