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Adityanath meets Bhagwat, seers at Kumbh amid growing demand for Ram temple
The meeting between the two, held at the RSS office in Jhunsi, lasted for about an hour, during which the CM presented Bhagwat two books and held talks.
Amid mounting pressure from seers and Hindu organisations for immediate starting of the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday held meetings with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and top seers at the Kumbh mela’s tent city.
The meeting of the CM with Bhagwat came hours before the latter’s scheduled visit to the two-day ‘Dharam Sandad’ of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), where discussion on construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya is on top of the agenda.
The meeting between the two, held at the RSS office in Jhunsi, lasted for about an hour, during which the CM presented Bhagwat two books and held talks.
The visit came within 48 hours of the CM holding a UP cabinet meeting at Kumbh and just 12 hours after the announcement of Jyotishpeeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati’s decision at ‘Param Dharm Sansad’ to reach Ayodhya on February 21 and lay the foundation of a Ram temple.
At the end of the three-day ‘Param Dharm Sansad’, Swami Swaroopanand had on Wednesday evening appealed to the Hindus to be ready to face bullets but had maintained that no one should revolt.
The CM, however, did not meet Swami Swaroopanand during his two-and-a-half hour stay and left Prayagraj before the start of the VHP meet.
He, however, met a number of other top seers at Kumbh, including Puri Peetadheeshwar Swami Nischalanand Saraswati, Juna Akhada peetadheehwar Swami Avdheshanand Giri and president of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.
Though most saints that Yogi met refrained from commenting on the discussions that took place during the visit, Swami Nischalanand Saraswati conceded that the CM had come seeking his support on the Ram temple issue.
Swami Nischalanand said he deplored the delay in temple construction and demanded urgent steps in this regard, to which the CM cited certain constraints owing to the case pending in Supreme Court.
Adityanath may have skipped the opening day of VHP ‘Dharam Sansad’ but he had attended the meet held last year during the annual Magh Mela here and even expressed his commitment to temple construction.
As an MP from Gorakhpur, he had also attended the VHP meet in 2013 held on the banks of Sangam here. Whether he will attend the meet on the concluding day on Friday is not known.
