RLD, BSP, Congress join BJP on Ayodhya darshan, SP gives it a miss
After the roughly two-hour drive that included a brief stopover at Barabanki for refreshments, the legislators led by assembly speaker Satish Mahana arrived in Ayodhya, where they were joined by chief minister Yogi Adityanath
. As many as 330 lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh, including those from the opposition Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in a first-of-its-kind joint visit to the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Sunday even though the main opposition Samajwadi Party skipped the bus ride to the temple town to stir up politics just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in which Ram temple is expected to be a major plank.
In keeping with their assembly strength, the BJP lawmakers, along with those of its existing allies the Apna Dal (Sonelal), Nishad Party and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, outnumbered those from the opposition, which found representation from two Congress lawmakers and a lone BSP MLA. The nine Rashtriya Lok Dal lawmakers, who so far were part of the opposition alliance but are now said to be just an announcement away from joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, were there too, as much for display of devotion as for expression of new-found bonhomie with BJP.
After the roughly two-hour drive that included a brief stopover at Barabanki for refreshments, the legislators led by assembly speaker Satish Mahana arrived in Ayodhya, where they were joined by chief minister Yogi Adityanath who arrived straight from Pune to be part of this unique pre-poll temple get-together.
“A total of 330 legislators (MLAs and MLCs) went on the Ayodhya trip. Including the family members, the total number was 430,” the state information department said.
The Samajwadi Party was under attack from the BJP for its decision to abstain from the temple event.
Both deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak felt that the SP’s move reeked of minority appeasement. Maurya also added that he prayed to the deity to end the Samajwadi Party politically.
Though the Congress was part of the Ayodhya visit, its lawmaker Aradhana Mishra “Mona” was quick to defend the Samajwadi Party.
“I think anyone can visit the temple at the time of their choosing,” she said in defence of its alliance partner, whose chief Akhilesh Yadav has agreed to join Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi or Rae Bareli, soon after the yatra enters Uttar Pradesh on February 16. The SP later hit back at the BJP over its criticism. “Faith is a personal matter. The BJP has always used religion for politics. I will decide when to go where,” said SP lawmaker Amitabh Bajpai.
Lawmakers of the RLD, whose leadership had firmed up a pre-poll seat-sharing pact with the Samajwadi Party in January, but now is set to join the BJP since PM Narendra Modi’s “dil jeet liya” act for conferring Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary’s grandfather Chaudhari Charan Singh, admitted that the SP-RLD deal wasn’t on.
“Consider the pact between BJP-RLD final. Decision will be announced by Jayantji,” said RLD legislature party leader Rajpal Balyan.
Ostensibly on Adityanath’s nudge, to ensure that devotion-struck commoners who have been queuing up for darshan of Ram Lalla for hours weren’t inconvenienced, the temple administration didn’t stop pilgrim darshan during the VIP event.
Yogi Adityanath, his ministers and all lawmakers even decided to forego the tradition of visiting Hanumangarhi temple before Ram temple visit, as the famous Hanuman temple teemed with pilgrims, most of them from different parts of the country and wanting to follow the religious protocol of visiting Lord Hanuman ahead of Lord Ram.
Yogi Adityanath visited the Ram temple twice, the second time to take stock of the preparedness and pilgrim flow as devotees from across the country, including by Astha special trains, have been visiting the temple regularly.
The media was kept away from the temple premises where, after darshan, the lawmakers also had a simple lunch.
“For darshan, the lawmakers were invited in alphabetical order based on the divisions they came from. So, lawmakers from Agra division had darshan first along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and assembly speaker Satish Mahana. The first batch of lawmakers spent the maximum time before Ram Lalla, everything was very well coordinated,” said Sridhar Agnihotri, media advisor to the speaker.
