Advani claims of building Ram temple in Ayodhya

Gorakhpur (UP), Feb 16: The Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), L K Advani, asserted on Sunday, Feb 15 that his party, if voted to power in the ensuing elections, will construct the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

"I want to tell you that we with greater excitement say Jai Sri Ram. But our excitement in the real sense of saying Jai Sri Ram would be on the day when Ram Temple would be constructed at his birth place in Ayodhya," Advani said at a public rally here on Sunday, Feb 15.

He also mentioned that his party had got an opportunity to rule the nation because of the Ram Temple campaign.

"The main reason for which the BJP has got five year tenure to rule was because of the people of Uttar Pradesh and the Ayodhya campaign, which has changed the whole politics of India," Advani added.

The BJP rose to prominence on the back of a Hindu revivalist campaign that sought the construction of a Ram Temple on the site of a 16th century mosque that was razed to the ground by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992.

Hindu hardliners claim the mosque was built by Muslim invaders after destroying a Ram Temple at the site believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram, the King of Ayodhya.

After winning general elections in 1999, the NDA Government was forced to abandon its plans to construct the temple by its secular coalition partners.

ANI