Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh on Saturday received the invitation to attend the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22. However, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that he would visit the temple, along with his family, after the inauguration event.
Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), Akhilesh Yadav said that he received the invitation on Saturday and also assured that he would come to Ram Temple as a visitor after the consecration ceremony.
“Thank you for the affectionate invitation to the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Ayodhya, and heartfelt wishes for the successful completion of the ceremony. We will surely visit with family as devotees after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony,” the SP leader said in a letter to the temple trust.
The SP leader, in the letter shared on X, also congratulated the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra.
Akhilesh Yadav’s reply came amid a loud political row over the attendance at the ceremony by various political parties. On Friday, Yadav alleged that the BJP was humiliating the opposition parties in the name of Lord Ram.
The Congress party has announced that it will not be attending the January 22 ceremony, alleging that the event has been turned into a political one rather than a religious one. Congress and SP are partners in the alliance formed to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, where the saffron party aims to project the Ram Mandir as a key election issue.
Other major opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), also opined that the inauguration of the Ram Temple is an “election gimmick”.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders have been attacking the parties declining Ram Mandir invite by labelling them as “anti-Ram” parties.