The RSS on Thursday categorically said Ayodhya issue would be a key issue in the Lok Sabha elections, next year and Sangh Parivar outfits would back candidates and political parties which support construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site.
"Organisations involved in the Ram temple movement including VHP would certainly go to the people and ask them to support only those candidates or political parties who support the cause of the Ram temple," RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told reporters here. He, however, said the intensification of the VHP agitation now had nothing to do with the elections neither would be Ayodhya issue be an important issue to the coming Assembly elections in five states.
Though presently, BJP and Shiv Sena are the only two major parties supporting the temple cause, BJP had been consistently maintaining it would not rake up the Ayodhya issue but would respond if the opposition raise it. About 160 MPs mostly belonging to BJP and Shiv Sena, and some NDA allies have signed on the VHP pledge to support the temple cause, Madhav claimed. Endorsing Vajpayee's recent statement in Ayodhya vowing to fulfil late Mahant Paramhamsa Ramchandra Das' last with regarding Ram temple, Madhav charged the opposition with 'politicising a non-issue for the sake of vote bank politics.
The RSS spokesman also welcomed
new Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas chief Nritya Gopal Das' proposal to negotiate
with local Muslims on the Ayodhya issue and claimed "some other efforts
were also on" to resolve the imbroglio.