THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union government should bring in a legislation to resolve the

issue, said

on Wednesday. "The state government has been demanding that the Central government should introduce a bill in Parliament," Surendran told reporters here.

The minister made his comments after it was reported that Kollam MP and RSP leader N K Premachandran would move a private member's bill in the Lok Sabha to ensure protection of customs at the Sabarimala temple. Premachandran is set to present the bill titled 'Sabarimala Sreedharma Sastha Temple (special provisions) Bill, 2019' in Parliament on Friday.

"The Central government and the BJP didn't want to bring in a legislation and resolve the issue. They had tried to make Sabarimala a battleground and reap political dividends out of it. They forced believers to protest on the streets and deliberately tried to spark sentiments against the state government," said the minister.

Surendran said Premachandran's bill might suffer the same fate of other private member's bills. Normally, private member's bills are not accepted by legislatures, which prefer the government to pilot the bills. "If they have sincerity, the BJP leadership in Kerala should try to convince the Central government to bring in a legislation and provide legal protection to the believers' rights," he said.

Travancore devaswom board president A Padmakumar, who had taken a stand against the CPM leadership's decision to follow the court's verdict, told reporters on Wednesday that the issue had a serious impact on the performance of the LDF in the Lok Sabha poll. He said the leadership should realize it and initiate corrective measures.

"The LDF's stand created some misunderstanding among voters. That needs to be cleared. If that can be done, we don't need to doubt about the front's performance in the upcoming Konni byelection," Padmakumar, who was a former MLA from Konni said. Last week, Padmakumar spoke at the CPM

district secretariat, where he criticised the party's stand.