Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has asked the opposition parties to clear their stand on the construction of Ram Mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya. Addressing a meeting of the booth-level workers in Aligarh on Wednesday, Shah reiterated that BJP wants Ram Mandir at the same place in Ayodhya as he quested Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to tell people about their views on the matter.

“Sare sant puch rahe hain ki Ram Janmabhumi mandir ka kya hoga…BJP chahti hai, wahi sthan par jald se jald bhavya Ram Mandir ka nirman ho…Aaj Aligarh ke manch se Congress, SP, BSP ko puchna chahta hun…Apna stand spasht karein (All the sants are asking what would happen to the Ram Temple. The BJP wants that a grand Ram Mandir to be constructed at the same place at the earliest. From this dais in Aligarh, I want to ask the Congress, SP and BSP to clarify their stand on the issue),” he said, adding that Congress be blamed for the delay in the hearing in the Supreme Court.


He noted that recently, the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas had sought 42 acres of land from the government for the construction of the Ram temple and that BJP government has decided to give back the surplus land to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas. The land was acquired by the Congress government in 1993.

Will win 74 seats: Shah

Ridiculing the SP-BSP alliance, Shah said that the saffron party and its partners will win 74 Lok Sabha in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming general elections. The BJP and its ally Apna Dal had won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2014.

He said that when BJP workers ask him about the proposed grand alliance of opposition parties, he tell them that it is a sham and there is no need to fear it.

“If Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu come here to seek your support, will it make any difference? They are leaders only in their respective states,” the BJP president said.


He also claimed that even if “Rahul Baba” (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) went with “Bua (BSP chief Mayawati) and Bhatija (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav)”, the NDA’s tally of seats in the state would go up from 73 to at least 74.

Shah said that the elections will be fought on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi versus the rest.

Uttar Pradesh Chif Minister Yogi Adityanath, who also attended the meeting of booth-level workers, questioned as to why there was no quota for the SC, ST and OBC people in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). He accused the Congress of practicing appeasement politics and dividing the country.