 "Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena")
Ram mandir inauguration updates: Days after senior Congress leaders - Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury- declined the invite to the Ram temple consecration ceremony, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said that those who have been invited should visit Ayodhya on January 22.
"Those who have been invited should definitely visit Ayodhya for the inauguration of Ram temple," Raut said, adding, "Ram is not a private property of Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. Ram belongs to everyone. Those who have been invited and even those who haven't, all should visit."
"Who are they [BJP] to extend an invitation? Have they constructed BJP's office in Ayodhya?" he asked.
This comes a week after the Congress party said that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, his predecessor Sonia Gandhi, and Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22, calling it a "RSS/BJP event".
"Religion is a personal matter. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain," the party said in a statement.
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"While abiding by the 2019 Supreme Court judgment [that paved the way for the temple] and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have respectfully declined the invitation to what is clearly an RSS/BJP event," it added.
Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded that President Droupadi Murmu perform the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as it is a matter of "national pride and the country's self-respect."
The former Maharashtra chief minister also wrote to the President, inviting her to participate in an aarti at Kalaram temple in Nashik on January 22, the day of the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
