UP CM Yogi Adityanath will be the first CM since 2002 to visit Ram Lalla Temple.
Popular Hindutva leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath could be the second chief minister to offer prayers at the controversial Ram Lalla temple in Ayodhya after the demolition in 1992. In 2002, then CM Rajnath Singh was the first one who had offered his prayers at the site. No CM in past 15 years has visited the disputed site.
Yogi Adityanath’s Ayodhya tour is to review Faizabad-Ayodhya division development works on May 31 and will also attend the birthday celebration of Ramjanmabhumi Nyas President Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.
Yogi’s likely visit to the makeshift temple would come a day after three top BJP member LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti have asked to appear before in Lucknow High Court.
According to media reports, CM Yogi would be staying for more than 8 hours in Ayodhya, he will fly to Faizabad from Lucknow at 8:35 am and will straight-forward visit the disputed site first.
Though the officials are tight-lipped over whether CM Yogi would be offering his prayer at the Ram-Lalla temple or not, the confidants of CM Yogi are confident that he would certainly visit the temple. If Yogi Adityanath would indeed visit the temple it will be an interesting thing to see whether or not how Yogi Adityanath opposition reacts to this news.
Hundreds of Hindu zealots scaled the disputed Babri Masjid in 1992 and knocked it down, triggering a cycle of communal violence that claimed more than 3,000 lives. The controversial razing was the culmination of a festering dispute between Muslims and many Hindus, who believe the Mughal emperor Babur razed a temple at the site believed to be the birthplace of Hindu god, Ram. The demolition also buoyed the BJP to power in Uttar Pradesh and in other Hindi heartland states.