THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Rath Yatra led by BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai and BDJS president Tushar Vellapally to protect the customs and traditions of Sabarimala will conclude at Pathanamthitta on Tuesday. The rally which was flagged off from Kasaragod on November 8 has gone off uneventfully, but Mr Pillai drew flak from many quarters by dragging the Sabarimala tantri into the controversy during his speech at the Yuva Morcha meeting in Kozhikode.
BJP leaders vouch that the yatra helped the party gain the support of the Ayyappa devotees. Former BJP state president C. K. Padmanabhan told DC that more agitations would be held against the LDF government in the coming days.
“We will fight to protect the interests of Ayyappa devotees. We are waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on the review petitions and writ petitions on Tuesday,” he said.
Earlier, several nati-onal BJP leaders were expected to attend the valedictory meeting to be held at the Path-anamthitta municipal stadium at 5 p.m. But due to the funeral of union parliamentary affairs minister Ana-nth Kumar taking pla-ce in Bengaluru on Tu-esday afternoon, their presence at the rally is in doubt.
“Yuva Morcha natio-nal vice-president A. P. Muruganandam and secretary Anoop Antony Joseph will attend it. Thousands of devotees and BJP supporters will take part in the meeting,” said Mr T. Ashokan Kulanada, BJP Pathanamthitta district president.
A section of BJP st-ate leaders has resented the way Mr Tushar has hogged the limelight, especially in Malabar areas where BDJS does not have any stake. But a BJP leader said national president Amit Shah had decided that the Rath Yatra should be led by the NDA and not by the BJP.
