Ahead of 2019 lok sabha polls, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to visit Ayodhya

Mumbai, Oct 4: Ahead of 2019 lok sabha elections, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray is all set to visit temple towns of Varanasi and Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. He is all set to launch ' Chalo Ayodhya' movement following which he will visit Ayodhya. However, the date of his visit to Ayodhya will be announced during the Dussehra rally of Shiv Sena.

According to political analysts, the Sena will be appropriating BJP's Hindutva agenda in the run up to the 2019 general elections if Thackeray visits Ayodhya.

Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the the Sena's visit is an attempt to take a dig at the PM, and also a strategy to invoke Hindutva prior to the elections.

It is no secret that the Shiv Sena has always supported building of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not fulfilling its promise made during various elections since 1995.

Earlier in July, Thackeray had indicated his plans to visit Uttar Pradesh. Colourful hoardings of "Chalo Ayodhya, Chalo Varanasi" drive were put up depicting the picture of a bow-and-arrow-wielding Lord Ram and a scene from the River Ganga Ghat at prominent locations on Uddhav Thackeray's Birthday.

It can be recalled that Thackeray had also accepted West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Mamata Banerjee's invite to participate in her mega rally in Kolkata in January 2019. Mamata had extended an invite to him for the rally during her meeting with Sena's parliamentary party leader Sanjay Raut at the TMC office in Delhi in August.