New Delhi: Claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been utilising the Ram Temple consecration ceremony for the vote bank politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the INDIA bloc alliance has decided to sit together in the coming days to chalk out a clearcut strategy to counter BJP.
"The budget session of the Parliament starts on January 31. All the INDIA bloc alliance will sit together to chalk out a strategy to counter BJP and its policies," Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Mohua Majhi told ETV Bharat on Thursday.
"In place of addressing several burning issues India is facing like price rise, unemployment, the BJP is playing with religion," said Majhi. Criticising the BJP for utilising religion for vote bank politics, Majhi said people nowadays are well aware of such a "game of politics."
"In our INDIA alliance, we have political leaders from different religions. However, nobody plays politics with their religion," quipped Majhi. Referring to the prospect of the INDIA alliance, Majhi said that the opposition parties will fight unitedly against the BJP.
"All the parties are in talks over seat-sharing issues at the state level. If there are any differences, the central leadership of all parties will take the final call,” Majhi said.
Echoing the same view, a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP), an alliance partner of the INDIA bloc said that BJP is trying to get vote banks on the pretext of Ram Mandir.
"The Ram Mandi has not yet been completed. But the Narendra Modi-led BJP government was in a hurry to do the 'pranpratistha' just to attract voters of a particular community," said the SP leader, who did not wish to be named.
He further said that even four 'Shankaracharyas' opposed the consecration ceremony. "Shankaracharyas will not attend the January 22 inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya because it is being held in violation of the rules of Sanatan Dharma," the SP leader said.
Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotishpeeth in Uttarakhand has recently said that none of the four Shankaracharyas are going to attend the consecration ceremony on January 22.
"We don't have any ill-will against anybody. But it is the responsibility of the Shankaracharyas to follow the norms of the Hindu religion and suggests that others do so. They (those involved in the construction of the temple and organisation of the function) are ignoring the established norms in Hindu religion," said Avimukteshwaranand.
However, several of the INDIA alliance leaders have already decided not to attend the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony. Congress and CPI (M) have already rejected attending the programme on January 22. The Trinamool Congress is also unlikely to attend the program although there is no official word from the party.
"We have not taken any final stand on whether to attend the consecration ceremony,” said Mohua Majhi.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has said he will not be accepting the invitation as the planned ceremony at Ayodhya was nothing more than a BJP event. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is uncertain on this issue while Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are yet to respond to the invite.
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