Thiruvananthapuram: The state chief electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena said on Sunday that the activities of Sabarimala Karma Samithi would be put under the scanner.
“The Samithi is a social and cultural organisation and is not a political party. Therefore, its members are entitled to its opinion on the Sabarimala issue,” Teeka Ram Meena was measured in his response to Onmanorama on Sunday. “However, they have no right to use Sabarimala and Lord Ayyappa to seek votes in favour of any particular party,” he added.
But during a 'namajapa' dharna held in front of Secretariat on Saturday, this was exactly what the Sabarimala Karma Samithi had done: turn people against the state government and canvas votes specifically for NDA candidates. “There is a state government conspiracy to capture the wealth of temples. All of this will be taken into account when people vote this time,” Sabarimala Karma Samithi leader Swami Chidanandapuri said. “The NDA manifesto promises to preserve the customs and traditions of temples,” he added.
Teeka Ram Meena said that the recording of Swami's statements would be examined by the Election Commission.
The 'namajapa' dharna was only the beginning. From Monday, which marks the start of the Malayalam New Year, the Samithi will jettison its initial restraint and go full blast. Besides carpet bombing the state with 'namajapa' protests, it will also carry out door to door campaigns in the name of Sabarimala and Lord Ayyappa. The chief electoral officer said that his team would keep a close watch on the Samithi's activities.
During the initial phase of the campaign, the Samithi had restricted its political presence to erecting hundreds of large hoardings that displayed pictures of police action in Sabarimala during the last 'mandalam season'. This was dog-whistle politics, subtle political messaging intended to provoke the faithful. Technically, no party was favoured nor vilified. But the pictures of police action and the caption - 'Mandalam ethayalum mandala kalam marakkaruthu' (Whichever the constituency, don't forget the mandalam season) – left no one in doubt that the Samithi was gunning for the Pinarayi Vijayan government and wanted the emotional wounds caused by the Sabarimala issue to keep festering.
Now, just when it was felt that the issue was brushed aside to the margins, the hill shrine has returned to the centre stage of the pollscape. It looks like a neatly orchestrated political push to whip up emotions as the polling date nears. The Karma Samithi seems to have timed its open Sabarimala pitch to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's operatic lament in Tamil Nadu that even the name of the Lord could not be uttered in Kerala.
The election laws being complicated, Teeka Ram Meena may find it difficult to take action against Sabarimala Karma Samithi. The Samithi will argue that it is not a political party.
But such an argument will not work in Thrissur. Any blatant political activity by the Karma Samithi in Thrissur constituency will make it easy for the Election Commission to crack the whip. K S Radhakrishnan, the NDA candidate in Thrissur, is the vice-president of Sabarimala Karma Samithi. “It will be a clear violation of the model code of conduct if they openly seek votes in the name of Sabarimala in Thrissur,” Teeka Ram Meena said.