The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in Kerala on Friday.
The saffron party took the decision for the shutdown after a devotee of Lord Ayyappa set himself on fire at a BJP protest venue in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
Venugopalan Nair, the 50-year-old devotee, poured kerosene on his clothes, set them on fire and ran into the protest venue in front of the state Secretariat. He died at the state-run Medical College Hospital in the evening.
At the venue was former state BJP President C.K. Padmanabhan, who is on an indefinite fast against the manner in which the Kerala government is handling the Sabarimala temple issue after the Supreme Court ruled in September that all women can enter the shrine.
While the police are yet to ascertain the reason for the immolation, the BJP is linking it to the Sabarimala temple issue.
But in his dying declaration, Nair has said he does not wish to live any longer and is ending his life and made no mention of the Sabarimala temple.
(With IANS inputs)
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