Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad, an important alliance partner from the Opposition INDIA bloc, on January 17 announced that he will not attend the consecration ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram temple on January 22.
Earlier many leaders of INDIA block like Sharad Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Mamata Banerjee of Trinmool Congress (TMC), Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress and Uddhav Thackerary of Shiv Sena (UBT) have announced to skip the grand ceremony which would be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Asked about attending the consecration ceremony of Ayodhya Ram Mandir, Mr. Prasad said, “No, I will not attend.”
Mr. Prasad said this in Patna today while having a brief interaction with media personnel. On the other hand, Janata Dal(United) national president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not issued any official statement so far on his visit to Ayodhya, however temple trust member Kamehswar Chaupal has sent him the invitation.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi earlier this week had said if Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad respect all faiths — sometimes offering Chadar, and sometimes paying obeisance in the Gurudwara — then why should they hesitate in visiting Ayodhya Dham?
Mr. Modi had also said that if Mr. Prasad’s family visit Mathura, Vrindavan and Tirupati Balaji temples, then they should also visit Ayodhya Dham. He had expressed his disappointment saying that Ram belongs to everyone and it was unfortunate that RJD-JD-(U) and other partners of INDI alliance are distancing themselves from Shabari, Kevat and Valmiki’s Ram.
When asked about seat sharing getting delayed ahead as Lok Sabha polls are barely months away, Mr. Prasad further said, “Seat sharing takes time. It will be announced at the appropriate time.”
The former Chief Minister and former Union Ninister also denied the rumour of any rift within the alliance in Bihar. Mr. Prasad stressed all is well. His statement came as many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of Bihar had raised questions on the brief visit of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at Mr. Prasad’s residence on the day of Dahi-Chura feast on January 15. Mr. Kumar had visited 10, Circular Road residence and stayed nearly for 15 minutes.
After that Mr. Modi had issued a statement that Mr. Kumar stayed only for seven minutes and Mr. Prasad did not even apply tilak of curd on his forehead the way he did in 2017.