Overview

• The Global Ayyappa Sangamam on 20 September at Pampa, organised by the Travancore Devaswom Board, drew NSS and SNDP participation, while Congress and the BJP stayed away.
• NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair welcomed the government’s revised stance, voiced trust that rituals would be protected, and rebuked both Congress and the BJP over Sabarimala.
• Congress leaders began outreach to NSS, with K. C. Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala engaged in fence-mending, even as the party publicly reiterated that NSS maintains political equidistance.
• CPI(M) leaders hailed the NSS–SNDP engagement, with the State Secretariat saying such support would broaden the LDF’s path to a 2026 Assembly win, a claim the Opposition dismissed.
• Opposition figures pressed the government to withdraw its pro-entry affidavit and drop 2018 protest cases, as local backlash surfaced against Nair with critical banners in Pathanamthitta.