Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Ayodhya visit that saw him offering prayers at various temples, today came under sharp attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for his past remarks related to Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The BJP today shared the old videos of Arvind Kejriwal in which the Aam Aadmi Party chief can be seen criticising the saffron party for using Ram Mandir as a poll plank.

Sharing the video on Twitter, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “Today, Kejriwal ji has hurt his ‘Nani’… not only Nani…even Jawaharlal Nehru would also be upset…It is not right to disrespect elders like this ‘Sir ji’!”

Patra made the remarks in reference to Kejriwal’s old speech in which he had quoted his maternal grandmother as saying that her ‘Ram’ cannot reside in a temple constructed after demolishing a mosque.

“When Babari mosque was demolished, then I asked my Nani that you would be very happy, now your Lord Ram’s temple will be built, then she said that her Ram cannot reside in a temple built by demolishing a mosque,” Arvind Kejriwal can be heard saying in the video.

In another video, Kejriwal had said, “Time and again, the BJP has started saying for the last one month that ‘Mandir Wahin Banayenge’ (We will build the temple there), and when we asked when they will build it, they say, won’t tell the date but repeat every five years that Mandir Wahi Banayenge.”

In the third video, Kejriwal can be heard saying that he wonders whether this country would have been developed if Jawaharlal Nehru had built a temple instead of the Steel Authority of India.

Many AAP leaders including Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and MP Sanjay Singh have, in the past, criticised the BJP for raking up the Ram Temple issue before polls. In December 2018, Manish Sisodia had advised constructing a university in Ayodhya instead of the Ram Temple.

The AAP leaders have been touring Ayodhya ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls scheduled to be held next year. The temple visits by Kejriwal have been seen as an attempt by the party to flirt with soft Hindutva, as opposed to the Leftist tilt of the party and its top leaders in the recent past. The party will be marking its debut in the UP elections following its stellar performance in elections in the national capital.