Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has vowed to remove protesters camping at the base of the Sabarimala temple to block women of child-bearing age.

He accused the Sangh parivar of a “deliberate attempt” to communally polarise Kerala by unleashing violence in the name of protecting “regressive” religious beliefs.

In his first media conference after the closure of Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala after weeklong monthly rituals, Vijayan said the Sangh parivar was trying to divide the progressive Kerala society by injecting communal ideas.

The chief minister said it was the government’s duty to provide security and make all arrangements for devotees to enter the temple and promised to remove protesters who have camped at the base of the hill shrine ahead of the main pilgrimage season that is set to begin on November 17.

“In the name of devotion, the Sangh parivar deployed its activists to whip up violence in Sabarimala. But let there be no doubt, such criminals will be removed from the area to facilitate free entry to devotees,” he said alluding to the upcoming main pilgrimage season when lakhs of people from across all southern states visit the temple.

The hill shrine that also opens for five days from the first of every Malayalam month had witnessed violence on women who tried to enter the temple in line with the Supreme Court verdict that scrapped the ban on women of child-bearing age from worshipping at the shrine.

“The Sangh Parivar tried its best to turn the area into a battle field. We even witnessed their nefarious plan to communalise the issue,” Vijayan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

The temple has traditionally followed a system that denied entry to women of reproductive age under the belief that the deity is a “perpetual celibate”.

The chief minister accused the Sangh parivar of stopping even older women from entering the temple. “They had declared that only women aged between 10 and 50 would be stopped. But we saw much older women being denied entry,” said Vijayan.

Vijayan sought to bust the claim that the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam that once controlled the temple had a say in its running even now.

“The temple is the property of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). No one has the right to it. Yet, some people have been quoting a 1949 covenant (to claim the right of Pandalam family),” he said.

The covenant, signed by the kings of Travancore, Kochi and the Union represented by V.P. Menon, was about the merger of the two kingdoms and to bring all Hindu temples under Devaswom boards, he said.

“Pandalam was not a party to any of this as they had surrendered all temples to the Travancore royal family because of a debt trap,” Vijayan said. “Pandalam family lost all rights even before the covenant was signed.”

The Pandalam family had become a rallying point for the protesters, including the BJP and the Congress. Palace representative Sasikumar Varma said he would respond on Wednesday.

Vijayan lashed out at the Sabarimala chief priest Kandararu Rajeevaru who had threatened to shut down the temple on Friday when it appeared that two women would enter the temple under police protection.