Lucknow: Arriving here ahead of Sunday’s VHP rally for a Ram temple, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray asked the Narendra Modi government to wake up from a Kumbhakarna-like slumber and declare the date for its construction.
The Shiv Sena has made it amply clear that it is all set to hijack the Ram temple issue and put the BJP in the dock for the delay in temple construction.
Mr Thackeray on Saturday asked the BJP to set a date for temple construction. “We have been hearing slogan Mandir wahin banayenge, par tarikh nahin batayenge. Today we want a date for temple construction. I have come here to awaken the ‘Kumbhkaran’—this Kumbhkaran has been sleeping for the past four and a half years,” he said in his brief speech at Laxman Qila in Ayodhya.
He further said that he did not wish to take the credit for temple construction. “My father always said that Hindutva was in our blood. I want to know how long we will have to wait for the temple,” he asked.
He said that if the Modi government brought legislation for temple construction, the Shiv Sena would support it.
The Shiv Sena, which does not even have a toe-hold in Uttar Pradesh politics, is now striving to find a place in the Hindi heartland, using the Ram temple issue.
