No invitation of “any kind” to Wednesday’s Ram temple event in Ayodhya had been extended to L.K. Advani till Monday evening.

The organisers on Monday evening announced the “final” guest list for the bhoomi pujan ceremony.

“Koi bhi invitation nahi hai (No invitation of any kind has come),” Advani’s secretary of decades, Deepak Chopra, told The Telegraph in response to a question.

Asked whether Advani, the spearhead of the temple campaign, might join the event online given his age makes it risky to travel to Ayodhya amid the pandemic, Chopra said: “I told you, there’s no invitation of any sort at all.”

Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust overseeing the temple construction, said he had spoken to Advani but the veteran expressed unwillingness to attend in view of the pandemic.