Will visit Ram Mandir after consecration, says Siddaramaiah

NT Correspondent

Shivamogga: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he will visit the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya after its consecration on January 22 since he hadn’t received an invitation for the event.

He made the comments to mediapersons in Shivamogga. He was in the city for the official launch of the Yuva Nidhi Yojane.

The scheme seeks to provide Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders, provided they have passed from the academic year 2022-23 and aren’t pursuing higher education.

You are required to register through a government portal to avail of the scheme.

“I haven’t received an invitation. We don’t need them (BJP) to worship Sri Ramachandra. We are his (Ram’s) devotees. They (BJP) are politicizing the issue, which includes the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. We oppose this brand of politics, not Sri Ramachandra. I’ll see. When I am free after January 22, I’ll visit Ayodhya,” Siddaramaiah said.

“Moreover, our party workers across the state are going to do poojas in their local Ram temples,” he added.

Muzrai Minister Ramalinga Reddy had announced earlier that he had asked authorities of the thousands of temples that come under his department to offer special poojas on January 22 to mark the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

The ruling Congress has been under pressure from the principal Opposition BJP over the Ram Mandir issue.

The Grand Old Party doesn’t want to be seen as opposing the Ram Mandir, which is being built on the ruins of the Babri mosque that was blown up on December 6, 1992.

Siddaramaiah and co have been in damage control mode ever since All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary had declined the January 22 invitation, citing that the Ram Mandir had not been completed and that the consecration was being used for political gain ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

While the CM has publically supported his party high command’s decision, he is wary of being seen as anti-Ram Mandir.