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Katiyar makes U-turn on his ‘lollipop’ jibe

The issue of Ram Temple has taken the driver’s seat in UP politics. In a complete U-turn on Wednesday, Bajrang Dal founder and Parliamentarian Vinay Katiyar claimed that it was Samajwadi Party (SP) who  was playing the Ram Temple card for polarizing votebank ahead of Assembly elections. 

On Tuesday, the BJP veteran pointed to the contradiction the party’s effort to revive the Ayodhya issue but continuing to ignore him since last two years and called the initiative to build Ramayana Museum as “lollipop”.   

His statement came after inspection of Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma inspected sites for the museum. His statement to media also showed his anguish and displeasure towards the saffron party and its leadership. However, later he denied and blamed incumbent party of the state for politicising the issue ahead of Assembly poll. 

Katiyar who have been in forefront since 1984 with “Ram Temple” movement along with other veterans Ashok Singhal, who died last year and Lal Krishna Advani. 

Katiyar’s importance grew in BJP’s parent organization RSS during 90’s when BJP managed to capture the soil of Uttar Pradesh. However, he has been living in total oblivion ever since Narendra Modi took center stage in the party. Not only he was cut off during 2014 Lok Sabha Election campaign, but the party fielded his arch rival Lallu Singh from Faizabad constituency, which Ayodhya is a part of. But while he was asked on Wednesday, Katiyar completely rubbished the contradiction and said, “This is all media conspiracy. I am a Rajya Sabha member and Lallu Singh belongs to Lok Sabha and I don’t have any business with it.” 

Political observers have argued that this time ahead of this prolonged election the Ram temple issue has once again surfaced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Jai Sri Ram” slogan during his rally in Lucknow in the last week. Unlike past, this time also political parties are seemed to play respective trump-cards to polarise the heterogeneous caste vote bank.
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