A sadhu has claimed that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said the outfit would soon further the cause of Hindutva in Kashi and Mathura, core issues of the saffron camp along with Ayodhya.

Sutikshna Das Maharaj, the head of Sudama Kuti, an ashram in Vrindavan, said after meeting the RSS chief on Tuesday evening: “We discussed matters related to Kashi and Mathura. Bhagwat said Kashi and Mathura would be taken up soon.”

Bhagwat is in Vrindavan to attend meetings of the RSS.

“He said his blessings were with us on these two issues and we together would succeed for sure. He also said it was our duty to make efforts and that God would fulfill them,” said Das, adding that he had met Bhagwat to congratulate him on the beginning of the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Padam Singh, the RSS kshetra prachar pramukh in west Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, however, said when asked about Das’s claims: “Any official statement on any issue would come directly from the sarsanghchalak. Nobody else is authorised to say what his views on any issue are.”

Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna, Kashi or Varanasi is considered the land of Lord Shiva. In both places mosques are located in close proximity of temples.

People considered close to the Sangh parivar have filed court cases in Varanasi and Mathura seeking approval to remove Gyanvapi Mosque from near Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Shahi Idgah Masjid from near Krishna Janmasthan temple in Mathura.They have claimed that temples were destroyed to build mosques in both places during the Mughal period.

Although the RSS has not broached the issue directly in recent years, Kashi and Mathura have been core to its cause along with Ayodhya since the 1980s. The Ram temple movement in Ayodhya culminated in the decimation of Babri Masjid in 1992.

After the Supreme Court in November 2019 paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the central government has set up a Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to build the shrine. The trust has begun a countrywide drive to collect funds for the construction.