Kerala Assembly polls 2026 | The hill shrine that returns to Kerala’s political arena every election

When the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) announced plans last September to organise a Global Ayyappa Sangamam, the political undertones were hard to miss. With local body elections approaching and Assembly polls not far away, the gathering of devotees of Lord Ayyappa quickly took on significance beyond the realm of faith.

For a Left Democratic Front (LDF) government long associated with rationalist politics, the embrace of religious symbolism was striking and it was the optics that spoke loudly. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shared the stage with representatives of several Hindu organisations, signalling what many viewed as an attempt to rebuild bridges with sections of the Hindu electorate.

Whether the outreach worked, however, is debatable. In the local body polls held months later, the United Democratic Front (UDF) emerged as the clear gainer, winning four of the six corporations, 54 municipalities and 504 panchayats, while tying with the LDF in district panchayats.

Women entry controversy

The politics of Sabarimala temple has deep roots. The 2018 Sabarimala women entry verdict controversy, which followed the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all age groups to enter the shrine, triggered massive protests and hurt the LDF in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

With the State now on the doorstep of yet another election, fresh controversies, including the alleged gold theft at the shrine and the ongoing Supreme Court hearing on women’s entry, have once again pushed Sabarimala temple into the political spotlight. Sensing an opportunity, the Opposition, particularly the UDF, is attempting to keep the issue firmly in the public discourse.

“Be it in 2018 or in 2025, the devotees of Lord Ayyappa have not received justice and this is certainly going to influence the final outcome,” says Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, senior Congress leader and former Home Minister. According to him, the shrine occupies a special place in the political imagination of voters in the south-central districts of Kerala. “The gold theft controversy clearly tilted the balance of power in several parts of this region during the local body elections. This sentiment continues to linger among voters,” he argues.

Change in stance

The LDF, however, rejects any suggestion that it has lost ground over the issue. The coalition also appears to be banking heavily on its latest move to retract its earlier stand supporting the entry of women of all ages into the temple.

V.N. Vasavan, the Devaswom Minister, insists the government has acted decisively to safeguard the shrine. “It was this government that first proposed an investigation by a Special Investigation Team under the court’s supervision,” he says, adding that irregularities at Sabarimala accumulated over decades and across political regimes.

If the LDF and UDF remain locked in a familiar political contest over the issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to have struggled to convert the controversy into sustained electoral momentum. Party insiders admit that, unlike in 2018, the BJP has not been able to recreate a similar wave of public mobilisation.

Electoral dividends

Political scientist G. Gopa Kumar, former Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Kerala, believes the electoral dividends from the Sabarimala debate have so far flowed more towards the UDF than the BJP. “The NDA losing Pandalam municipality in the recent local body elections is a clear indicator of this shift,” he notes.

At the same time, he cautions against overstating religious polarisation in Kerala. Compared with the Hindi belt, the emotional response among the State’s Hindu electorate remains more tempered, shaped by a long tradition of social reform, he says.

“Even so,” he adds, “Sabarimala has repeatedly surfaced as an electoral issue in Kerala and will continue to influence the political conversation in the coming election.”