Sena sources says Uddhav could visit Ayodhya around Diwali and conduct a symbolic shilanyas (foundation stone-laying) of the Ram Temple
The Shiv Sena is planning to use party president Uddhav Thackeray's visit to Ayodhya to up the ante on the construction of the Ram Temple and appropriate the BJP's hardline Hindutva agenda for a political opening outside Maharashtra. Sena sources said Uddhav could visit Ayodhya around Diwali and conduct a symbolic shilanyas (foundation stone-laying) of the Ram Temple.
Last week, Janmejay Sharanji Maharaj, chief of Ayodhya's Sri Ram Mandir Nyas, met Uddhav and invited him to visit Ayodhya. Uddhav will announce the date of his tour in the party's Dusshera rally.
Sena sources said Uddhav may meet seers of the Nirmohi Akhada, a Vaishnavite sect, which is one of the main litigants in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.
Sena plans to encash on the anger in BJP's hardline Hindutva constituency on its inability to construct the Ram Temple. Sena leaders said their presence in assembly elections in states like Madhya Pradesh and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, could queer the pitch for the BJP in multi-cornered fights.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, executive editor of party mouthpiece 'Saamna', said "lakhs" from Maharashtra and other states would congregate at Ayodhya in a show of strength.
"If the BJP cannot ensure a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, why did it want a majority in the Parliament and Uttar Pradesh assembly? What was the need for kar sewa (during the Ram Mandir agitation)?" questioned Vinay Shukla 'Sir', Shiv Sena's North India in-charge.
Seeking an ordinance for the construction of the temple at the disputed site on lines of the triple talaq ban, Shukla claimed with the BJP failing to deliver on its promises, Hindus saw the Shiv Sena as the "final choice". "There is no need for a judicial process on an issue of faith. The Hindus feel that a Ram Temple once stood there. Uddhavji will lay the first brick for its construction," said Shukla.
Mir Baqi, a general of Mughal emperor Babar is said to have destroyed a temple of Lord Ram in 1528 to construct the Babri Masjid. After the BJP brought the temple issue into the mainstream political discourse in the 1980s, the mosque was felled by kar sewaks from the Sangh Parivar and other radical Hindu right-wing groups on December 6, 1992, which caused large-scale rioting across the country, including Mumbai. Late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had said he was proud his Shiv Sainiks were involved in the demolition.
"Uddhavji will meet the main stakeholders in the Ram Mandir issue... like the seers of the Nirmohi Akhada, Swami Paramhans Das of the Tapaswi Chhawni who is on a hunger strike for the Ram Temple and the Sant Samaj," said Shukla, adding that the "Sant Samaj knows the BJP will act only if pressurised by the Shiv Sena."
Despite contesting in states outside Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has been unable to secure a major political opening barring in 1991, when its candidate Pawan Pandey became an MLA in Uttar Pradesh at the height of the Ram Mandir movement. Shukla said in the recent Uttar Pradesh elections, the Sena had been able to garner substantial votes in Gonda and Badayun and has corporators in areas like Allahabad, Kasganj and Unnao.
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