The BJP said on Thursday Kerala’s police’s move to block Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan’s vehicle while he was returning from Sabarimala temple early on Thursday was a deliberate attempt to insult him, a charged denied by the force.

The minister was coming back from the hilltop shrine to Lord Ayyappa in a private vehicle as he took a state-run bus to Pambha base camp on Wednesday leaving his official car as a mark of protest the difficulties being faced by the devotees.

The saffron party said the minister was forced to spend 45 minutes on the road as the police checked his vehicle.

The Bharatiya Janata Party even staged a protest in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari, which is represented by Radhakrishnan in the Lok Sabha, and sought action against police officials who blocked the minister who came for a darshan to the shrine on Wednesday evening.

Superintendent of police Harishankar, however, said Radhakrishnan was given a checklist and that no one apologised for the move, as reported earlier.

“It was a normal checking of vehicles and his car was not delayed more than ten minutes,” he added.

Radhakrishnan trekked to the hilltop shrine in the state’s Pathanamthitta district on Wednesday. The Union minister of state for shipping and finance had questioned senior police officers over the ban on private vehicles heading to Pambha, the last entry point to the temple and accused them of unnecessarily harassing devotees.

The minister, who was accompanied by state leaders and activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party, also interacted with devotees, especially those from neighbouring states.

The row over the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing women of all ages to enter the temple nestled in a tiger reserve in the Western Ghats has affected the pilgrimage as the hilltop shrine was almost empty on Thursday.

More than 100 pilgrims from Maharashtra went back two days ago citing the tense situation in the area amid a fierce standoff between the government and protesters.

The temple in Sabarimala opened last Friday for a 64-day pilgrimage, the third time since the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50. There was a string of protests in Kerala in October when the temple opened for the first time after the Supreme Court’s September 28 order.

Traditionalists, who believe the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is celibate, had opposed the court verdict and last month stopped dozen-odd women who tried to enter the temple.

First Published: Nov 22, 2018 13:17 IST