Would Ram Temple Have Been Built Under Congress, Asks Yogi Adityanath

Accusing the Congress of not respecting the people's faith, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday asked whether a grand temple would have come up at the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya under the party's government.

The BJP leader spoke at rallies in Pawai and Ashoknagar assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh on the last day of campaigning for the November 17 elections in the state.

"After a wait of 500 years" the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya was about to be completed, he said.

"Had the Congress been there (in power), would a grand Ram temple have been built at the Ram Janmabhoomi?" he asked.

Under the BJP rule, the Kedarnath temple was restored following a natural disaster and the Kashi Vishwanath Dham in Varanasi and Mahakal Lok in Ujjain were developed, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister added.

"When the Congress can neither work for development and the welfare of the poor nor can it respect your faith, what is the point of carrying the burden of Congress?" he asked.

Noting that the Grand Old Party has only two MLAs in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Adityanath said that issues like the Ram temple are resolved when the Congress is put in such a position.

The Congress was responsible for the problems of terrorism, Naxalism, and separatism, and the BJP government solved them, he said, alleging that these issues were linked to the Congress's vote bank and also its "source of income." An atmosphere of fear prevailed because of curfew-like situations during festivals like Holi and Diwali due to the poor law and order situation during the Congress rule, Mr Adityanath claimed.

The party tore apart the social fabric by dividing people in the name of caste for its vote-bank politics, the BJP leader further alleged.

"Whenever Congress governments had to give something to the people, their leaders used to say that Muslims have the first right to the resources of the country. They did not say that the poor, farmers, youth, and women have the first right on the resources of the country," he said.

The duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan put Madhya Pradesh in the ranks of developed states while under the Congress rule it used to be called "Bimaru (backward) Pradesh," he said.

The prime minister's slogan of `Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' (taking along everyone, development of everyone) is the foundation of a "Ram Rajya" where no individual is discriminated against and all people benefit from development "but there is no appeasement of any section," he said.

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