Sabarimala gold row | Heist case dominate BJP, Congress and CPM political events in poll-bound Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala on Friday witnessed the BJP, Congress and the CPM top leaders accusing each other over the Sabarimala Ayyapa temple gold heist in all major political events leading towards the assembly elections.

While the ruling CPM and the opposition Congress accused each other, BJP national president Nitin Nabin attacked both the CPM and the Congress over the Ayyappa temple gold heist.

In his maiden visit to Kerala after taking over as the BJP national president, Nabin said that the accused in the Sabarimala gold heist were getting bail owing to the tactical understanding between the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

"A match fixing is happening in the Sabarimala gold heist. The accused are getting bail due to tactical understanding between the LDF and UDF. The BJP will ensure punishment to all the accused in the Sabarimala gold heist," said Nabin while addressing the party booth level leaders in Kochi.

Nabin, who is holding meetings with BJP and RSS state leaders to chalk out election strategies, expressed confidence that the BJP will come to power in Kerala.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the key accused in the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold heist Unnikrishnan Potti first entered Sabarimala (as an assistant to the priest) in 2004 while a Congress leader, who is now holding key position at the national level, was the devaswom minister in Kerala. Vijayan was targeting AICC general secretary K C Venugopal who was devaswom minister in the UDF government in 2004.

"The UDF was even fearing discussions in the assembly over the Sabarimala gold heist as they fear that the connections of the accused with Congress leaders will be exposed. The LDF never supported Unnikrishnan Potti or any accused. Allegations are being raised against the LDF as the LDF government initiated the Global Ayyappa Sangamam which earned much goodwill," Vijayan said while inaugurating LDF's 'Vikasanamunneta jadha' (march for taking forward development) at Pathanamthitta.

Meanwhile, Venugopal alleged that the Sabarimala gold heist happened with connivance of the LDF government.

"Have we ever thought that Sabarimala temple's gold will be stolen, that too with government's connivance. The LDF government is protecting the accused and also putting pressure on the special investigation team not to arraign many other CPM leaders involved in the gold heist. Once the UDF comes to power in Kerala, the first priority will be to put all the accused in jail," Venugopal said while inaugurating the 'Puthu Yuga' (new era) march led by Congress legislative party leader V D Satheesan from Kasargod.