CM Uddhav to visit Ayodhya after govt completes 100 days

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya and offer prayers at the makeshift temple there, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Wednesday. The senior Sena leader said the CM would go on the trip after the Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government completes 100 days in power, on March 6.

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The announcement comes a day ahead of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) convention in Mumbai, where he is likely to make an announcement regarding his party’s shift to a more hardline Hindutva. The Sena has been facing questions over its core ideology of Hindutva in the wake of its alliance with secular parties Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra.

“Chalo Ayodhya! CM #UddhavThackeray will visit Ayodhya on the completion of 100 days in power!” Raut tweeted.

He also tweeted, “The government has started full-fledged work. The government will complete five years with the blessing of Lord Ram. As the government completes 100 days, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will go to Ayodhya. Will seek blessing of Lord Ram and chart out the future course of action.”

He later said Sena’s alliance partners should join the CM. “We want that our alliance leaders should also come along. Rahul Gandhi also visits several temples,” he said.

Thackeray was sworn-in as the chief minister on November 28, 2019. The MVA government completes 100 days on March 6, therefore the trip is expected around then.

Thackeray visited Ayodhya in November 2018, and later in June 2019 with Sena’s 18 newly elected members of parliament.

Following Raut’s comment on Rahul Gandhi, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the Congress has backed the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. He added that it is a personal choice to visit temples, and added that the one who goes there should have “compassion and goodwill”.