Shivsena MLAs demanded that Uddhav Thackeray be invited for the Ram temple Bhoomi Pujan

Mumbai:  A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar targeted the Centre over Ram temple, Shiv Sena, on one hand, downplayed Pawar’s comments, but a section in the party demanded that party chief Uddhav Thackeray be invited for the ceremony with PM Modi.

On Sunday NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that some people think building a temple will help in eradicating the Covid-19 pandemic. Commenting on Pawar’s statement, the Shiv Sena played it cautiously.

“Pawar has always had his own stand over the issue. But even the PM agrees that the issue of coronavirus is important,” senior Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

“Uddhav Thackeray always goes to Ayodhya. He went to Ayodhya when he was not a chief minister of Maharashtra, he went there after becoming chief minister too,” Raut said.

“The ties of the Shiv Sena and Ayodhya are intact. It is not a political relation. We do not go to Ayodhya for politics and did not go there for politics in the past too, Raut added said.

Sanjay Raut on Monday had also claimed Shiv Sena “laid the road” to the Ram temple in Ayodhya and removed the main roadblocks in the run-up to the temple’s construction “not for politics”, but out of faith and for the cause of Hindutva.

Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik has demanded that Uddhav Thackeray should be invited as a chief guest for the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5. Sarnaik has written a letter to the chief trustee of the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Sarnaik in his letter said, “Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray always had a firm and assertive stand on the issue of the temple construction movement. Shiv Sena and Shivsainiks were at the forefront of the movement. Considering the contribution of the party in the entire movement, Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray should be invited for the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony”