Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday accused the Congress of opposing the Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya in the past and said that if the party had wanted, it could have built the temple in 1947.
"The Congress could have built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in 1947. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wanted it, but the Congress leadership rejected it," Yogi Adityanath said at an election rally at Khategaon in Madhya Pradesh.
"Congress kept opposing Ayodhya's Ram Mandir and when the agitation began, they started saying that Lord Ram never existed... A party that claims to be the oldest one, if it dismisses the heroes and symbol of inspiration, they shouldn't be allowed to stay," he added.
Yogi Adityanath's comments came in the backdrop of Congress's Madhya Pradesh chief Kamal Nath's remark that the BJP can not take complete credit for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Kamal Nath, in an interview to an English daily, said that the former Prime Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi "got the locks opened" of the temporary Ram temple in 1986 to allow Hindus to worship on the premises.
"I've said whatever I had to say. Ram Mandir belongs to every person in the country," Kamal Nath told news agency ANI recently.
"Naxalism and terrorism were posing a great challenge, and corruption was also rampant. At that time instead of having concern for the nation, Congress leadership was concerned with one family. Congress cannot be separated from that one family," the Chief Minister said.
The Congress and problems have become synonymous, he alleged.
Madhya Pradesh is one of the five states going to polls this month. Votes will be counted on December 3.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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