By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major climbdown, Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran has asked the Centre to introduce legislation in Parliament to protect the faith of Sabarimala devotees. He was responding to reports that UDF MP N K Premachandran would move a private member’s bill seeking a ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine.

“The Centre should introduce a Bill, ensure legal protection for the believers and help the law-abiding state move on. The NDA government, which has a brutal majority in the Lok Sabha, should take a step in this regard. The BJP state leadership should intervene as everyone knows the fate of a private bill,” he said.

The LDF government, which went all out to implement the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the temple, seems to have a rethink following the Left’s humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. It could win only one of the 20 seats in the state.

Premachandran is set to move the bill seeking to maintain “status quo on the religious practices of the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple, as existed on the first day of September, 2018.”