BJP to roll out ‘Ram Darshan Yatra’ plan today

LUCKNOW The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will roll out its “Ram Darshan Yatra” plan for devotees from Friday, when the first batch of pilgrims from Kanpur Dehat arrive in Ayodhya for darshan of Ram Lalla whose grand temple, a stone marvel, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.

These devotees would arrive by UP State Road Transport Corporation buses. Beginning Friday, this process would continue almost till March with the party making plans to facilitate visits even till Ram Navami on April 17, a move that some see as part of a design to ensure that the temple inauguration issue resonates among the masses till the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

There aren’t any specific numbers that the party is quoting, but with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) also sending its cadres from across the country to Ayodhya, the “Ram Darshan” yatras could see the BJP-VHP-RSS cadres coordinating visits of up to two crore (20 million) pilgrims till March and after.

While most pilgrim travel that the BJP would facilitate from within the state would happen by buses, from February 5, pilgrim traffic would pick up as Astha special trains carrying pilgrims from various parts of the country to the temple town too would start arriving.

“To guard against overcrowding, each Astha special train would depart from Ayodhya in 24 hours,” state’s transport minister Daya Shankar Singh said. These special trains, each with 20 coaches, were to originally bring devotees from January 26, connecting 66 locations across the nation. But the plan was deferred after the scramble witnessed on January 23, when the temple opened for devotees for the first day after its high-profile inauguration.

A BJP leader, who is camping in Ayodhya to facilitate visits of devotees, said: “After the visit of devotees from Kanpur (Dehat), devotees from Lakhimpur (February 3), Sambhal (February 4), Barabanki (February 5) too have been lined up. In some cases, if possible, two districts would be managed in a single day.

Another BJP leader camping in Ayodhya said, “Depending on the time of their arrival, the devotees would be put up in the tent city - ‘Navya Ayodhya’ - set up by the tourism department where stay of about 25,000 devotees has been made.”

The BJP leaders said while devotees would pay for their travel, the stay, lodging and food of pilgrims would be made available free of cost.

“Voluntary organisations are running free kitchens for pilgrims who would put up in tent city. The visit of pilgrims would be rotated in a manner to guard against overcrowding,” this leader said.

“From the tent city till the Ram Path, these pilgrims would be taken in electric buses for darshan,” this leader said, adding that party cadres from several states have been deployed to facilitate temple run of pilgrims.