‘BJP should come clean on Ram Mandir’

Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has questioned how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would build the Ram Mandir by allying with leaders, who are opposed to the temple. If the BJP was treating the Ram temple construction as just another ‘jumla’ (rhetoric), then there was no meaning of the government and its work, he said.

Addressing the conclave of Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti at Worli, Mr Tha-ckeray asked the BJP how could it build the Ram temple when it has allies like Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) opposing it. “The BJP should come clean on it,” he added.

The BJP has claimed that the Congress is obstructing the process of Ram Mandir construction. Commenting on this, the Sena chief said, “Unlike the BJP, the Sena has raised the Ram temple construction issue before the polls to expose those who used the issue as a poll plank. Just tell us how the Congress is hindering the temple construction. The Congress was shown its place in 2014 for its deeds. The party could not even get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha,” he said.

Mr Thackeray also slammed the BJP chief Amit Shah, who had recently remarked that his party would thrash former allies if a pre-poll tie-up did not materialise ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Sena is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Criticising the comments, Mr Thackeray said, “I have heard words like ‘patak denge’ from someone. But one who can trounce the Sena is yet to be born.”