JD(U) national general secretary Ram Chandra Prasad Singh said the part will support an ordinance to facilitate the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya while newly-appointed vice-president Prashant Kishor said BJP should stick to the development agenda.
Amid pressure on the ruling BJP to bring an ordinance to facilitate the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, its ally JD(U) has said that it will not support such a move by the NDA government.
Sangh parivar and a section of the BJP have been demanding an ordinance which would pave the way for construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, where Babri Masjid once stood.
JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is running a coalition government with the BJP in Bihar.
On Friday, a senior party leader said it was not in favour of promulgation of such an ordinance while another leader said the BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections without resorting to the Ram temple issue and should stick to the development agenda to win the general election next year.
JD(U) national general secretary Ram Chandra Prasad Singh said the party will stick to its earlier stand it had taken on the issue in its earlier avatar as the Samata Party which was -- the issue either be solved by mutual consent between the affected communities or decided by a court of law.
"There should be no confusion in the minds of the people with regard to our stand on Ram temple issue at Ayodhya. If an ordinance is promulgated to facilitate construction of the temple, our party will not support it," he said.
"Since the Samata Party days, we have been in favour of a resolution of the dispute by mutual consent or through a court order. We brook no third alternative," Singh, who is also the party's leader in the Rajya Sabha and a confidant of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told reporters in Patna.
Even before walking out of the NDA in 2013, the JD(U) had always insisted that abrogating Article 370, Ram temple in Ayodhya and Uniform Civil Code should be kept out of the coalition agenda.
BJP performed well without Ram temple, can do again: Prashant Kishor
The party's newly-appointed vice-president Prashant Kishor has also obliquely expressed disapproval of Ram temple being made a poll plank, pointing out that Narendra Modi had won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls without taking recourse to the emotive issue.
Kishor, who played an important role in shaping the BJP campaign during 2014 polls, said the BJP should stick to the development agenda to win the general election next year.
"I do not think there is any cause for alarm for BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still the most popular leader in the country," he told reporters during an informal chat in Patna on Friday.
"I was a part of Narendra Modi's poll campaign team in 2014. Issues like Ram temple were not on the agenda and the BJP put up its best ever performance on development plank. I do not see why it cannot do well without raking up such issues," he said.
A number of NDA allies, including Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), have expressed discomfiture over the BJP's pursuit of the Hindutva agenda.
Chirag Paswan, a Lok Sabha MP from LJP, had earlier said that people felt "disappointment" by the BJP for using the Hindutva card in the assembly polls to five states, he said he feels the saffron party can do well without raking up such issues.
Pressure on BJP
Pressure has been mounting on the BJP from the Sangh Parivar, of which it is a part of, and a section of hardliners within the party to make headway for the construction of Ram temple, which they termed as an issue relating to peoples' faith (aastha).
In the run-up to the assembly elections, right-wing organisations held rallies and programmes to demand that Ram temple be built in Ayodhya. The BJP has said that the construction of Ram temple is not a political issue for it but a matter of faith.
The Sangh Parivar has been demanding construction of a temple at the disputed site through an act in Parliament.
However, with the BJP's tally in the Lok Sabha having gone down on account of loss in a number of by-polls and the party falling short of majority in the Rajya Sabha there have been demands that an ordinance be promulgated to facilitate temple construction before the general elections due next year.
(With PTI inputs)
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