'Wasn't Allowed in Temple During Modi's Visit': Shashi Tharoor Accuses PMO of Cutting Out Kerala Leaders

New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office had allegedly striked off names of local Kerala leaders from the list of people allowed inside Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple during PM Modi's visit. The matter came to light after Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and accused the PMO of not letting him enter the temple on Tuesday.

"Received Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SreePadmanabhaSwamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram for the unveiling of a plaque of the Swadesh Darshan project. But when the local MP, MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) and mayor were to enter the temple with him for darshan, we learned that the PMO had cut us from the list," he tweeted.

The prime minister offered prayers at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple on Tuesday, while he was in the state to inaugurate developmental projects. Modi, who was accompanied by Governor Justice P Sathasivam and state Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran, entered the sprawling shrine through the eastern entrance and spent about 20 minutes there.

Before the darshan, he Modi inaugurated the multi-crore developmental works carried out at the shrine as part of the union government's flagship Swadesh Darshan Scheme, which is aimed at developing the basic facilities in and around religious institutions across the country.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Minister of State for Tourism, Alphons Kannanthanam and Tharoor were present in the function.

Attacking the PM Modi over alleged ignorance of local leaders, Tharoor said, "It seems that under the BJP even God must serve a political purpose and members of other parties must not be allowed to worship in the prime ministerial presence."

The Thiruvananthapuram MP has been a critic of Modi with his statements often courting controversy. Last year, Tharoor had triggered a row when he claimed at an "unnamed RSS source" had compared PM Modi with a scorpion sitting on a Shiv Linga.

Later, at an event, he credited Jawahar Lal Nehru for creating institutional structures due to which we got a "chai wala as prime minister", and said that through these structures "any Indian can aspire to rise to the highest office of the land".