Yogi invokes Ram, says SP and BSP don’t like his Ayodhya visits
FAIZABAD: Launching the ruling BJP’s civic poll campaign from Ayodhya, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party did not like his visits to the temple town.
The CM was in Ayodhya and Faizabad to kick-start the party’s campaign for the three-phase civic election in the state on November 22, 26 and 29. Polling in Ayodhya is in the first phase. “Whenever I come to Ayodhya, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party leaders do not like it,” Adityanath said.
The previous governments neglected Ayodhya for no reason, he said, claiming, “There was no power or water supply and drainage system was defunct. Those who have neglected Ayodhya must not be forgiven.”
Invoking Lord Ram, the chief minister said the God was ‘central to everything’. “In India, nothing can be undertaken or accomplished without the mention of Lord Rama. He represents our faith, and is the focal point of all the beliefs in India,” he said.
The Art of Living Foundation head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who had offered to mediate in the Ayodhya Ram temple matter through out-of-court talks, is scheduled to meet the CM and stakeholders in the Babri Masjid dispute on Thursday.
Welcoming the spiritual leader’s proposed visit, he said he looked forward to open talks with stakeholders in the dispute. “Any effort of mediation and at any level is good and worth welcoming. Talks had begun earlier also and one party always excluded itself from it, so the problem is not that there should be talks, but that both parties should agree to it. Good results can come out of such talks, but the intention should be right,” Adityanath told a news agency.
Accusing the SP government of blocking all projects of the Modi government, he said: “Thirteen cities from UP were selected for the Smart City project and 60 for Amrit Yojana but the previous government did not support the Centre to roll out projects in UP.”
He also charged the SP government with blocking the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.