Ram Temple was never an election issue, says UP BJP chief

Kanpur, Apr 20: Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya today said though Ram temple is a matter of faith for crores of Hindus, it was never an electoral agenda of the party.

"Not only I but crores of Hindus believe in Lord Ram. However, the Ram temple has never been our election agenda," the UP BJP chief told reporters.

The matter is anyway with the court and whatever verdict comes, we will accept it, he said. He said the party's only election agenda is development of the state by eliminating corruption and family politics.

"Party workers should now get to work and start informing people about state government's failure to tackle lawlessness and development work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last two years," Maurya said.

People in Bundelkhand are suffering due to drought but the state government is doing nothing, he alleged, adding the Samajwadi Party government has "failed on all fronts".

Maurya said farmers of Bundelkhand would have been relieved to an extent, if SP government could do even 10 per cent of the work which the BJP governments have done in drought-affected states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

On being asked about the party's chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls due in 2017, he said that BJP does not have dearth of candidates for the top job.

We will fight the elections on Narendra Modi's development agenda and work done by his government in the last two years, he said.

Maurya said his party is following the path shown by Bhimrao Ambedkar.

PTI