For 2.5 years, how Yogi Adityanath focused on Ayodhya

Lucknow, Nov 10: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has visited Ayodhya 18 times in the past 2.5 years after taking over the reins of the state.

He also paid obeisance to Lord Ram there, while opposition leaders avoided it, the BJP said here.

"In past 2.5 years, the CM visited Ayodhya 18 times and also paid obeisance to Ram Lalla. He attended Deepotsav programme thrice and renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya," a senior party leader told reporters here, praising the BJP government's focus on Ayodhya.

He said in the past 27 years, senior leaders including SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra avoided visiting Ram Lalla.

It was Adityanath who had announced that Faizabad district will be known as Ayodhya, he said.

Plans are afoot to install a 151-metre-tall statue of Lord Ram on the banks of Saryu river in Ayodhya.

A new record was created in Ayodhya recently as over six lakh earthen lamps were lit on the Saryu riverbank on the eve of Diwali, days ahead of the Supreme Court verdict on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute.

There is a proposal to build a digital museum based on Lord Ram in Ayodhya to boost tourism and beautify the temple town.

The Supreme Court on Saturday paved the way for construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site and and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.