Uddhav visits Nashik’s Kala Ram temple for blessings before electoral battle

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray visits Kala Ram temple in Nashik and performs Goda aarti to counter BJP's political gains from Ram temple event.

While the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena took the lead in celebrating the consecration at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray sought to make his political statement by visiting the historical Kala Ram temple in Nashik and performing the Goda aarti on the banks of the Godavari river. The Kala Ram temple is also famous as a pivot of Dr B R Ambedkar’s anti-untouchability movement—it was here that an agitation took place in 1930 to demand equal entry to all castes to temples.

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To counter the political benefit that the BJP and its allies are aiming for from the Ram temple event, Thackeray chose the Kala Ram temple at Panchvati, where Lord Ram is believed to have visited. The Panchvati area holds much significance in the Ramayan as the place where Ram, Sita and Laxman lived during their exile.

The undivided Shiv Sena participated in the Ayodhya movement and its workers took part in the kar seva on December 6, 1992, the day the Babri Masjid was brought down by violent agitators. Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray justified the demolition and subsequently positioned himself as an aggressive Hindutva leader. Following Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to snap ties with the BJP and enter into an alliance with the Congress and NCP, the BJP has been repeatedly accusing him of giving up on Hindutva for the sake of power.

It was in an attempt to counter the jibes and reclaim the saffron legacy of his father that Uddhav Thackeray decided to visit the Kala Ram temple on the day of the pran pratishtha of the Ram idol. Thackeray received an invitation for the Ayodhya function by speed post two days ago but chose not to attend.

The Sena (UBT) chief, along with wife Rashmi and sons Aaditya and Tejas, visited the Kala Ram temple on the eve of the party’s state-level conclave in Nashik. Sanjay Raut, Vinayak Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, senior leader Subhash Desai, Diwakar Raote and Ambadas Danve and other members of the Sena (UBT) were present when Thackeray, wearing a saffron kurta, reached the temple at 5.20 pm and performed a pooja for 25 minutes. After the pooja, the group went to Ram Kund and performed a Goda Aarti on the banks of the Godavari river, at which thousands of party workers and people, including the kar sevaks who had visited Ayodhya in 1992, were present.

Thackeray, after arriving at Nashik, visited the home of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar and paid tribute to him to establish the commitment of his family and party to Savarkar and Hindutva.