Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday inaugurate the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, just months before the Lok Sabha elections, in a mega spectacle being called by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the “fulfilment of a divine dream”.

The list of invitees for the grand ceremony is long – which includes politicians, seers, sportsmen and Bollywood celebrities. However, the list is exclusive and so select that it excludes all of the BJP’s chief ministers, except for UP CM Yogi Adityanath in whose state the temple is being built.

It does, though, include senior Opposition leaders, including Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, among others, but none of them will be attending the ceremony.

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The Opposition INDIA bloc’s decision to skip the consecration ceremony has also made headlines with members criticising the BJP for politicising a religious event.

The Congress declined its invite saying “religion is a personal matter”; MP Rahul Gandhi called it a “Narendra Modi function”. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee also underlined the religion-politics divide. Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Uddhav Thackeray have all also turned down invitations.

The Opposition, however, is aware that if it completely neglects the ‘pran pratishtha’, it would also alienate too many voters in a bid to defeat BJP. Therefore, most of them will headline events of their own on January 22.

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Communal harmony rally, temple visits and a Yatra

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee recently shot down media’s questions about “various temples”, declaring “I have nothing to say about it… religion is a personal issue”. She said that she plans to visit the Kalighat temple near Kolkata on January 22, and then hold a “communal harmony rally”.

The rally will include people from all communities and touch base at temples, churches, gurudwaras, and mosques on its route, before concluding with a meeting at south Kolkata’s Park Circus Maidan.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, currently undertaking the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Maharashtra, will be in Assam on January 22 and will visit a temple as part of the day’s activities.

Also Read: Ayodhya Ram Mandir Inauguration: Date, time and schedule of event | Check all details here

Sharam Pawar has been more subtle in his response whule turning down the invite, expressing gratitude for the invitation but saying he would not attend since “it will be easier to get darshan” after the “historic event”. “By then Ram Temple construction will also be complete,” he said, in a comment seen a veiled swipe at the BJP.

The AAP chief, who has not yet been invited, has announced ‘Sundar Kand’ and ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ programmes across the national capital on the consecration day.

The ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has also not yet received an invitation. However, he has said that him and his party leaders will visit the Kalaram Temple in Nashik on January 22, and perform a “maha aarti”.