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Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s big Ayodhya event to get a push from Uttar Pradesh BJP
The VHP is organising the Dharam Sabha, a meeting of Hindu religious figures, at Bengaluru, Nagpur and Ayodhya on November 25 and in New Delhi on December 9. Senior functionaries of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), too, are expected to attend the event.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh will mobilize support for the November 25 congregation of Ram devotees in Ayodhya, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) event that could put the Ram Janmabhoomi issue back in focus ahead of next year’s parliamentary election, two leaders of the ruling party said.
The VHP is organising the Dharam Sabha, a meeting of Hindu religious figures, at Bengaluru, Nagpur and Ayodhya on November 25 and in New Delhi on December 9. Senior functionaries of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), too, are expected to attend the event.
“We have been asked by party’s leadership to provide whatever support that we can to make the event a success,” a BJP member of parliament from central Uttar Pradesh said on condition of anonymity. “We have already started mobilizing support for the event. It will be an impressive show.”
“We expect a gathering of over 1 lakh at Ayodhya,” VHP spokesman Vinod Bansal claimed. “The event at Delhi will see a turnout of more than 4 lakh.” Another VHP leader said top BJP and RSS leaders are expected to attend the event in Ayodhya and in Delhi.
The gathering is likely to be the biggest in Ayodhya since December 6, 1992, when tens of thousands of ‘Kar Sevaks’ (volunteers) razed the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya . Some leaders say the number of attendees could even be double the expected 100,000.
Already, Karsevakpuram in Ayodhya, the unofficial HQ and official workshop of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, is a hive of activity. VHP’s newly-elected international president Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje is personally supervising preparations for the Dharam Sabha along with the body’s international vice-president Champat Rai.
Rai has a team of volunteers who report back to him every day on the number of households they personally reached out to with invitations for November 25.
The Ram temple is an election promise of the BJP, and the party expects any action on this front to help it consolidate its base in Uttar Pradesh.
