Kerala BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai’s has said Kandararu Rajeevararu, Tantri of the Sabarimala temple, had discussed with him a plan to close the sanctum sanctorum in the event of women of menstruating age entering the temple.

At a meeting of the party’s youth wing in Kozhikode on Sunday, Mr. Pillai also said the Sabarimala agitation “was part of the BJP agenda” and that it was a golden opportunity for them in the State.

The BJP leader, also a well-known lawyer, claimed that the Tantri had asked him if closing the sanctum sanctorum would amount to contempt of court. “I told him that such a charge will not stand. Also, if that happens, I will also be charged with the same offence. Thousands of our party workers too will be with us,” he said. It was the Tantri’s plan that perturbed the police and put the government in a dilemma, Mr. Pillai claimed.

Mr. Pillai said the BJP had a “well organised” plan for the agitation through which ''it could score over its rivals.''