After Ayodhya visit, Shiv Sena plans to tour other states

Mumbai: Buoyed by the success of its recent Ayodhya visit, the Shiv Sena now plans to tour other states to raise the pitch for the Ram Mandir issue. Party chief Uddhav Thackeray said that the party will hold a rally at Pandharpur on December 24 in support of the Ram Mandir.

“The Ram Mandir issue will not be solved by just pointing fingers at the court. There is a need to wake up the Narendra Modi government, which is in a Kumbhakaran-like slumber. Hence, after Ayodhya, we will be going to Pandharpur where we will hold a rally on December 24. Not only that, if the situation demands, we will go to other states too,” said Mr Thackeray.

The Sena chief Tuesday held a meeting of state-level party officials at the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar. Addressing the media, he said that whenever there were elections, the Ram Mandir issue was raked up. Later however, the assurances were quic-kly forgotten. The issue had not been solved desp-ite there being a strong government at the Centre. Hence, the Sena had decided to take it into its hands.

Mr Thackeray also held a review meeting of drought relief works across the state. “There is a severe drought in the state. The party has decided to stand firmly behind drought-affected people. For this, even though we are in the government, we have decided to implement a separate relief scheme for them,” he said.

The Sena is the only party which has been working for drought-affected people from the beginning. Earlier too, Ramdas Kadam and Aaditya Thackeray visited various places to help drought-affected people, Mr Thackeray said.

Party leaders will visit all drought-affected districts across the state. Against this backdrop, they have taken a review of what works need to be undertaken to provide relief to drought-affected people, he added.