LUCKNOW: Raising the temple pitch yet again, UP CM Yogi Adityanath claimed that whenever the grand temple of Lord Ram would be constructed at the disputed site in Ayodhya, it would be built only by the BJP government and no one else. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day Yuva Kumbh (youth congregation) organised by Lucknow University here on Sunday.
Pacifying the young crowd shouting slogan -- vote usiko jayega jo mandir banvayega (vote only for the one who will build temple), the CM assured them that it was only BJP government which would facilitate temple construction. Asking the youths not to indulge in sloganeering, CM Yogi said: "Ram Mandir ka nirman agar koi karega to wo hum hi karenge...koi doosra nahi karega (If Ram temple will be constructed, It willll be by us)."
However, in a veiled attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Yogi said there were "some misguiding the people by showing their `janau’ (Sacred thread) and telling their `gotra’.
Yogi has put the temple issue back in focus for the first time after BJP lost three states--MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh-- of hindi heartland to Congress.
With 2019 Lok Sabha elections just three months away, the present political narrative of the country has been dominated by the temple issue for the last six months. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat led the right wings organisations, including the VHP, in mounting pressure on the BJP-led central government to frame law to facilitate construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya before 2019 polls.
While addressing the young gathering at the Yuva kumbh, CM also claimed of malicious attempts being made to undermine Kumbh due next year. Giving reasons behind organising four Kumbhs -- Environment Kumbh (in Varanasi), Yuva (Youth Kumbh (Lucknow), Samrasta (Social Harmony Kumbh (in Ayodhya) and women Kumbh (Mathura-Vrindavan), Yogi said that while environment Kumbh was organised to dispel the notion of environment being under threat because of the Kumbh, the Samrasta Kumbh was meant to bring various castes and sub-castses including Dalits under one platform and get them consolidated.
Likewise, the Yuva Kumbh, he said, got organised in the state capital as UP happened to have the largest population of youth which are entrusted to provide directions to the state and held in nation building.