"Congress Fielded Lawyers Against Ram Temple Construction": Union Minister

Hitting out at the Congress, Union minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday claimed it had deputed a battery of lawyers to ensure that the Ram temple in Ayodhya could not be constructed.

Addressing a public rally in Bilapsur district, Mr Thakur also attacked the INDIA bloc and alleged that members of the opposition alliance sent lawyers who contested cases of terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and Dawood Ibrahim to the Rajya Sabha.

"What kind of character is this of the Congress and the opposition parties...they fielded a battery of lawyers against the construction of Ram temple and at the same time they sent lawyers to fight cases of the terrorists," he said.

"These are the same people who knocked the door of the court at 2:30 in the night to stop Afzal Guru's hanging," the senior BJP leader added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is engaged in securing the borders of the country while Congress leaders are giving slogans to break the country into pieces, he said.

PM Modi considers Himachal as his second home and gave big projects worth thousands of crores of rupees to the state, Thakur said and added that today the entire country including Himachal has only one choice -- Modi.

"If you go to any corner of the country, people are saying 'My Choice Modi'. After four phases, it has become clear that the public has cast their vote for a stable and honest government -- the Modi government," he said.

He said PM Modi is going to become the PM for the third time, and only an official announcement is to be made on June 4.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)