State scan: Yogi govt starts ringing the temple bells in Uttar Pradesh

Now as the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are less than eight months away, the BJP has resumed stoking the emotional Ram temple issue

In October last year, a press communiqué by the Uttar Pradesh Ram Bhavan said the Yogi Adityanath government proposed to build a grand 100-metre Lord Ram statue near the banks of the river Saryu in Ayodhya.

A few days later, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, accompanied by a battery of his cabinet colleagues, descended on the temple town on the eve of Deepawali for a religious-cultural show comprising lighting diyas (earthen pots), performances by artistes from various parts of India and Southeast Asia, laser show themed on the Ramayan, etc.

Both these developments were deftly weaved around the party’s Ram temple agenda, which