Devotees near the banks of Sarayu river near Ayodhya
The VHP says that its yatra - a 300-km 20-day trek around Ayodhya - is on starting Sunday. But, with three days to go, there is no sign of the "lakhs of saints" it says will march in its 84 kos parikrama.
With a defiant VHP chief Ashok Singhal declaring that "the yatra is unstoppable and will go on as planned" despite the Akhilesh Yadav government banning it, the district administration has drawn up a list of 23 leaders of the Sangh Parivar - as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS and its affiliates like the BJP and the VHP are collectively called - who it wants to watch closely.
An aide of VHP leader Ram Vilas Vedanti, the man who tops that list, admits he might have gone underground fearing arrest. "The administration is capable of anything. But we have to prepare for this struggle," he says.
At the ashram of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, also prominently on the list, this reporter is told he is not meeting outsiders. "He is sleeping, the doors are locked. He has given us no instructions on whether we have to march in this yatra or not" says an aide.
The lack of activity in Ayodhya is marked. But the district administration is taking no chances. It has demanded that in addition to the 1600 police and paramilitary forces that guard Ayodhya round the year, 6000 additional cops be deployed.
All 42 roads leading to Faizabad district will be barricaded, officials said. A security review meeting was held today in Faizabad, Ayodhya's twin town. Top cop Arun Kumar said "section 144 has been enforced in all six districts where the VHP has mapped out its yatra."
The VHP has said that it will use the yatra to revive its demand for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri masjid site in Ayodhya, an issue that has never failed to polarise politics in UP.
Rajendra Chaudhary, a spokesperson of the ruling Samajwadi Party today said, "We won't allow anything which will raise communal tensions in UP. CM Akhilesh Yadav has made this clear. We won't let Uttar Pradesh become Gujarat," a reference to the 2002 riots in Gujarat under the watch of the BJP's Narendra Modi.