Yogi Adityanath visits Ayodhya, offers prayers at Ram Temple

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday arrived here and visited the Hanuman Garhi temple. Almost hundreds of devotees welcomed the Yogi chanting 'Jai Sri Ram' at the same site at Ayodhya.

This is the first time that any Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has visited Ayodhya since 2002.

Adityanath's visit comes a day after a CBI special court in Lucknow ordered framing of criminal conspiracy charges against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veterans L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Union Minister Uma Bharti along with nine others in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case.

Officials, however, said that there was no link between the court proceedings and Adityanath's visit to Ayodhya and said that it was pre-scheduled.

The Chief Minister was supposed to take part in the birthday celebrations of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, head of the Ram Janma Bhoomi Nyaas, which led the Ram temple movement in the 1990s.