THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Sabarimala women entry issue returning to centre stage, the BJP has raised a three-point demand before the LDF government. The party has called on the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government to adopt a stand favouring the protection of long-standing beliefs and customs at the hill shrine and revise its affidavit in the Supreme Court accordingly.
BJP state general secretary S Suresh told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that the party has also demanded withdrawal of cases registered against right-wing activists during the 2019 Sabarimala agitation and also a CBI probe into the gold theft case. The demands were raised at a party leadership meet held on the sidelines of the state election committee meeting to shortlist candidates for the upcoming assembly election, on Tuesday.
“When the LDF government tried to wreck the beliefs and customs of Sabarimala, devotees had staged protests against the move leading to false cases being foisted on them. The BJP demands that all those cases should be withdrawn,” he said.
The saffron party also reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the allegations of gold theft from Sabarimala, contending that only an impartial investigation could expose the “nexus” between the LDF and UDF in the episode.
“The party will hold protests across the state to press for the implementation of these three demands,” Suresh added.
Candidate shortlist prepared
Kick-starting the process of candidate selection, the BJP state election committee has approved a shortlist of candidates based on the grassroots-level feedback received from all 140 constituencies. Party sources told TNIE that the meeting cleared the list of around 50 seats in the first phase. It will be sent to BJP’s central parliamentary board for approval and formal announcement. In the coming days, discussions will be held on seats that have to be allocated to NDA constituents.