In UP, Togadia’s clarion call for Ram Temple fails to summon followers

LUCKNOW: Former Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Praveen Togadia, who on Tuesday floated his own party, could not elicit much support for the Ram Mandir movement during his threeday visit to Ayodhya this week.

The firebrand leader, now the president of the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), and the head of an as-yet unnamed political party, is making all efforts to project himself as the torchbearer of the Ram Mandir in Uttar Pradesh. This, after he was thrown out of VHP over his alleged differences with top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On this visit, he failed to evoke much response from both the saints and locals of the temple town, political and spiritual leaders familiar with the matter said. “The Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas has nothing to do with Togadia’s visit. The Nyas is in no way associated with his movement. In future also we will not have any association with his political party,” said Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas.

The Nyas, which has been at the forefront of the mandir movement, has the final say on the issue. Some of the saints would also appear to be annoyed with Togadia because he has formed his own political party — a move which could impact BJP in the general elections next year. “He has lost the little sympathy we had for him after he announced a political party,” added Das.

Many say his party will have no impact on BJP’S fortune in Uttar Pradesh. LUCKNOW: Ayodhya has returned to the centre stage of the country’s political landscape ahead of the coming poll season, albeit with a difference.

There is nothing unusual in the chorus for a temple getting shriller as the elections draw near, but this time around there is less scepticism , even as the Muslim community continues to repose its faith in the court verdict.

WHAT EXPLAINS THIS CONFIDENCE?

Firstly, this is the first time since the launch of the temple movement in the late 1980s that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are leading the chorus for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Till now, the VHP and its affiliate, the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas were the ones responsible for keeping the Ayodhya cauldron on the boil.

Secondly, again for the first time since the unlocking of the disputed structure i n 1986, a numerically strong BJP government is are ruling in both the Centre and the state — and under the two most prominent faces of Hindutva.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi accompanied LK Advani on his chariot (rath) from Somnath to Ayodhya in the early 1990s, earning his political spurs, while chief minister Yogi Adiyanath and his guru Mahant Avaidyanath are known votaries of temple movement with much of the planning for a temple happening at Gorakhnath Peeth.

Both, perhaps because of the positions they enjoy, have refrained from making a direct comment on the issue, though Yogi has frequently visited the temple city and given broad hints.

Thirdly, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent statement asking the Modi government to pass