Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders have decided to pray at the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Makar Sankranti, January 15, amid silence from the central leadership on whether Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge would attend the January 22 temple inauguration.

“All Congress leaders will take the holy bath in the Saryu in Ayodhya and then worship at Hanuman Garhi and the temporary Ram temple on January 15 on the occasion of Makar Sankranti,” Avinash Pandey, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, said here on Sunday.

Pandey was in Lucknow after concluding an 18-day Uttar Pradesh Jodo Yatra, which began from Saharanpur on December 20 and ended in Lucknow on Sunday. He and other state Congress leaders claimed there was no political significance to their Ayodhya pilgrimage.

However, Dwijendra Tripathi, a senior party leader, hinted that one of the objectives behind the planned January 15 pilgrimage was to flag what he termed the party’s historical role in furthering the temple’s cause. “There was Congress rule at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh when the locks of the Babri Masjid were opened in 1986 for Hindu devotees to worship Lord Ram there,” he told The Telegraph.

“There was also a Congress government at the Centre and the state when the idol of Lord Ram was placed inside the Babri Masjid on December 22, 1949. The BJP is known for doing electoral politics in the name of Lord Ram but we have done substantial work towards it (Ram temple). The BJP stands on a foundation we created without doing politics in the name of god.”

Karnataka plan

Karnataka minister for Muzrai (temple affairs) Ramalinga Reddy has directed that all temples functioning under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department offer special puja to mark the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.