Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], October 13 : Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar lashed out at the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government, accusing it of corruption over the alleged Sabarimala gold plating row.
Speaking amid widespread public outrage, he said, "There is immense anger among the people. When this issue is raised, the Chief Minister goes to Delhi and dismisses it as a slip-up. Missing 4.5 kg of gold from Sabarimala is not a slip-up; it is corruption."
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) staged a protest march in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, targeting the state government over the reported 4.5 kg of missing gold from the Sabarimala temple. BJP State President Rajeev Chandrasekhar led the march.
Sharing an X post, Kerala BJP wrote, "Yuva Morcha's @BJYM4Keralam protest is a flame against the communist government that puts fire in the hearts of devotees!"
"The spirit of Sabarimala burns bright! @BJYM4Keralam marches with devotion and defiance against the Left's temple loot and corruption," Kerala BJP wrote, sharing a visual from the protest.
The missing gold has sparked a political row in Kerala, where the BJP is accusing the State government of corruption.
Meanwhile, the Travancore Devaswom Vigilance, in a detailed report submitted to the Kerala High Court, has exposed a web of serious procedural violations, unauthorised interventions, and suspicious financial dealings surrounding the gold plating of the Dwarapalaka idols and copper panels at the Sabarimala Sreekovil temple.
According to the report, Unnikrishnan Potti, who has no stable income or declared business background, acted as an intermediary in several renovation and offering-related works at Sabarimala, despite not being the actual sponsor for many of them. The vigilance findings make it clear that several temple works attributed to Potti were in fact financed by other private individuals, including businessmen from Bellary and Bengaluru.
The report states that the gold plating of the damaged main door of the Sreekovil was sponsored by one Govardhan, a businessman from Bellary, while the plating of the copper sheets on the roof (Kattilla) was funded by Aji Kumar, a Malayali entrepreneur settled in Bengaluru.
"Potti acted merely as a middleman, facilitating the deals and using his proximity to the Devaswom administration to exercise undue influence," the report stated.
The controversy pertains to alleged irregularities in the gold plating work at the Sabarimala temple, which involved 30.3 kilograms of gold and 1,900 kilograms of copper donated by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998 for cladding the sanctum sanctorum and wooden carvings of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala.