Uddhav Thackeray to visit Ayodhya for Ram temple

Mumbai, Oct 4 Amid the competing politics over Ram temple, the Shiv Sena on Thursday declared that its chief Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya after Dussehra to reaffirm his party's commitment to the issue.

The announcement came a day after Ram Janmabhoomi Trust chief Janmejay Sharanji Maharaj met Thackeray at the party's base camp Sena Bhawan here.

Sharanji Maharaj invited Thackeray to visit Ayodhya, telling him that the trust required the Sena's help for the construction of Ram temple, Shiv Sena sources said.

Thackeray will announce the date of his visit to Ayodhya at the party's annual Dussehra rally to be held in Mumbai on October 19, senior Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut told.

He said his party has been maintaining that just the Shiv Sena has the "courage" to fabricate a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The Shiv Sena is of the view that if the Ram temple isn't developed now, at that point it can't be built ever, he included.

Thackeray had as of late said that the BJP would by and by rake up the emotive issue of Ram temple in the run-up to the 2019 surveys.

Ram temple construction in Ayodhya has been one of the core issues of the BJP, which is an ally of the Shiv Sena.

The Sena, which has set out to go solo later on races, has regularly focused on the BJP for "deferring" the development of Ram temple in Ayodhya regardless of having a lion's share.

"The Sena has dependably advocated the reason for Ram sanctuary in Ayodhya. The BJP, notwithstanding being in power for a long time, has not yet satisfied its dedication of building a stupendous Ram sanctuary there," Raut said Thursday.

Sharanji Maharaj said he told the Shiv Sena chief that his dad late Bal Thackeray had added to the obliteration of the Babri Masjid (on December 6, 1992), he should now add to the development of the Ram temple there.

With the Lok Sabha polls not as much as a year away, the pitch for contruction of Ram sanctuary in Ayodhya has been strengthening of late inside the BJP, even as the matter is sub-judice.

Senior Sena leader Arvind Sawant said that before the 2014 Lok Sabha surveys, the NDA had given three confirmations to individuals - to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution, development of Ram sanctuary in Ayodhya and to fathom the Kashmir issue.

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution concurs unique status to the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

"We are not accomplishing something which we haven't talked about before. At the point when no one assumed liability of the Babri Masjid destruction, (Sena organizer) Balasaheb did as such. Presently four-and-a-half years have gone (since NDA came to control) however the development of Ram sanctuary has still not started and the issue is pending in court," Sawant said.

"The Sena will remain for the issue," said the Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South body electorate.

The Uddhav Thackeray-drove party is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra.