Kerala Assembly elections | Sabarimala did not become an electoral issue

Development and government performance mattered more to the electorate.

One of the many reasons for the defeat of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was believed to be the State government’s handling of the Sabarimala temple entry issue. In the run up to the 2019 elections there had been widespread opposition in Kerala to the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to allow women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple and the LDF government, which had tried to implement the top court’s order, was said to have borne the brunt of people’s unhappiness. While the judges later referred the issue to a larger Bench and a final verdict is still pending, the fact that the issue had remained unresolved and the opposition Congress and the BJP kept up the pressure on the Pinarayi Vijayan government led to renewed speculation that the LDF’s electoral prospects might get affected once again. The Assembly election results and the LDF’s resounding victory, however, make it quite clear that the issue failed to make any dent to the Left’s prospects. The Lokniti-CSDS’s post poll survey in Kerala gives some indication as to why this happened.