Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai accused the ruling CPI(M) of pushing a devious agenda over the last 60 years to destroy one of the holiest Hindu shrines at Sabarimala.

“This will not be allowed to happen even if it demands that the last BJP worker sheds his last drop of blood,” Pillai said in Kasaragode on Thursday at a ceremony to roll out the six-day ‘save Sabarimala rath yatra.’

The yatra, being co-led by the NDA-BJP and the NDA partner Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), will end in Pathanamthitta — considered the birthplace of Lord Ayyappa — on November 13. It is on this day that the Supreme Court would consider review petitions against its verdict to allow women of all ages access to the shrine.

Women devotees took to the streets insisting that traditions be maintained at the shrine, forcing the NDA-BJP, the larger Sangh Parivar, and the Congress to fall in line.

The Sabarimala issue has heated up, with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections round the corner.

The NDA-BJP owes it to Pillai for taking an active role; despite his early days as president, he has single-handedly catapulted his party to the centre-stage with the Sabarimala agenda.

Pillai stood against the initial RSS-Sangh Parivar’s stand of supporting the Apex court verdict. But it was the RSS-Sangh Parivar that had to relent and weigh in with the State leadership of the BJP.

Observers said the Congress may also emerge as the greatest casualty, in case Hindu votes go to the resurgent NDA-BJP and the CPI(M) for varying reasons.

The Congress on Thursday conducted roadshows on the Sabarimala imbroglio from various centres.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said he couldn’t dream of trading the secularist credentials of the State and its religious plurality for the sake of a few votes.

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