Temple remark made with eye on 2019 LS polls, says Oppn

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s purported remark about the Ram temple has stoked a fresh controversy with the Opposition saying the BJP was raking up the issue with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Maurya on Sunday had said the Central government could resort to the legislative route if all other options failed to build the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

“Either the judgment will come on time or the matter will be resolved through mutual dialogue. We also have the third option of making the law if the need arises,” he had said, adding, “currently the Bharatiya Janata Party does not have required numbers in the Rajya Sabha to get a bill in this regard passed.”

Maurya’s statement came at a time when the Supreme Court is already holding hearings on the temple dispute for an early resolution.

Rashtriya Lok Dal state general secretary Anil Dubey said: “The deputy chief minister’s statement that the Centre might adopt the legislative route to pave the way for the temple construction suggests that they will go ahead with their plans regardless of what the court may decide.”

He, however, added, that the BJP was issuing such statements with an eye on 2019 Lok Sabha elections without being serious about the matter.

Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Sunil Singh 'Sajan' said, “The Bharatiya Janata Party should first explain if it respects the Constitution or not. What the deputy chief minister has said is contempt of the Supreme Court. On the one hand, they are saying across the country that they will respect Supreme Court verdict, on the other hand the state’s deputy CM is making such statements.”

He said if Maurya was saying that the government might resort to legislative procedure when it had numbers in the

Rajya Sabha too, then that time could not come before 2019.

Sajan accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of harping on the temple before elections just to divert people’s attention from “the Central and state government’s failures on all fronts”.

Congress spokesperson Zeeshan Haider said: "The BJP, in reality, does not want to make the temple. All that they are interested in is doing politics over it.”

“First, they came to power over the temple issue, but began saying theirs was not a majority government. Then they came to power at the centre with full majority too and changed the tune and began saying they will make the temple when they have governments both at the centre and at the state. Now, they have full majority governments both at the centre and the state,” he added.

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Either the judgment will come on time or the matter will be resolved through mutual dialogue. We also have the third option of making the law if the need arises. KESHAV PRASAD MAURYA, Dy CM , Uttar Pradesh