The Opposition parties in Left-ruled Kerala see the Supreme Court’s decision to refer the Sabarimala verdict to a larger bench as a recognition of the believers’ viewpoint and warned the state government against “disturbing peace” by sending women of childbearing age to the hill shrine.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, however, said “the government would continue to implement the earlier verdict”.

“The government will implement whatever the court order says. But the implication of this (Thursday’s) order needs to be examined. We will seek legal opinion on this,” Vijayan told reporters.

On what the government planned to do if women of childbearing age requests entry to the temple, the chief minister said: “We still have time to see what can be done.”

The September 2018 verdict of a five-judge bench had lifted the age restrictions on women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple, which does not allow women of childbearing age into the shrine on the belief that they would violate the sanctity of the celibate Lord Ayyappan.

The Supreme Court’s decision to refer the matter to a seven-judge bench has been widely welcomed in Kerala that had witnessed pitched battles between police and those opposed to the entry of women of childbearing age into the shrine. Several women who had tried to visit the temple had been thwarted and roughed up.

Multiple journalists had also been attacked by suspected Sangh parivar activists during the two months of protests that rocked the state that had still been recovering from the second-worst floods in a century.

The BJP on Thursday warned the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of “consequences” if it continued to facilitate the entry of women from the proscribed age group.

“The consequences will be very serious if the government continues to facilitate the entry of women (of childbearing age) to the temple,” senior BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan said.

“All the rituals and practices should be allowed to continue as they were. The government should do nothing to hurt the feelings of devotees. We want a smooth pilgrimage season,” he told reporters.

The annual Mandala Pooja pilgrimage season when lakhs of devotees arrive at the hill shrine is set to begin this Saturday. This will peak on January 15 when the maximum number of devotees visits the shrine for the Makara Vilakku. Thousands of policemen are deployed each year to help the pilgrims.

M.T. Ramesh, a state BJP general secretary, also cautioned the government. “Everything is in the state government’s hands. If the government repeats what it did last time by pushing atheist women into the temple, the devotees will react,” Ramesh said.

“Last time it was the believers who stopped women from entering the temple. Like last time, the BJP will support them,” he added.

The Sangh parivar had mobilised massive protests when the Kerala government had decided to implement the earlier court order.

While then state BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai had been among those who had “welcomed” the apex court’s decision to lift the age bar, the party had made a quick turnaround from its original position of supporting the verdict, perhaps sensing a political opportunity with the Lok Sabha polls just months away.

But the protracted battle against the government and its decision to implement the court order yielded little for the BJP that had expected to win at least the Pathanamthitta parliamentary seat where Sabarimala is located.

On Thursday, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala echoed views similar to the BJP’s and urged the government not to invite trouble by allowing women of childbearing age to enter the temple.

“This pilgrimage season the government must not send women to the temple by arguing that the Supreme Court has not stayed the original judgment,” warned Chennithala, who had last time welcomed the court verdict but made a U-turn along with his party within days.

“Although the original verdict has not been stayed, the real meaning of what happened today is that the final word has not been spoken yet. So, the state government should drop its old position,” he added.

Temple affairs minister and CPM leader Kadakampally Surendran made it clear that the government would follow whatever the court says.

“No one should use this issue and extract political advantage from it,” he said, reacting to the Opposition demand to stop facilitating visits by women from the prohibited age group to the temple.

“We have the Ayodhya verdict before us and know how the whole country accepted it. Everyone should accept the Sabarimala verdict the same way they accepted the Ayodhya verdict,” Surendran added.

The two women who had managed to enter the Sabarimala temple and pray the last time viewed Thursday’s court order as another test for the police and the state government.

“Since there is no stay on the original order, Kerala police and the government have the responsibility to provide security to all women who would want to go to Sabarimala,” said Bindu who, along with Kanakadurga, had dodged attackers to enter the temple after the September 2018 judgment.

They had slipped into the temple at 3.45am on January 3 this year under police protection and left quickly before Sangh parivar activists got wind of it.

Later that morning the chief priest had shut the temple and conducted “purification rituals” since the women were aged 42 and 44.

Kanakadurga said women in Kerala would continue the fight. “The progressive state and its women will continue the fight for equal rights,” she said.