With only days to go for the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony, the Aam Aadmi Party is set to hold recitals of Sundarkand, which is part of Ramcharitramanas, in all the Assembly constituencies in Delhi. Senior AAP leader and minister Saurabh Bharadwaj announced on Monday that starting Tuesday, AAP MLAs and councillors would hold a Sundarkand paath every month in the 70 Assembly constituencies. This is not the first time that AAP has organised an event like this. In 2020, Bharadwaj held a prayer meeting in Chirag Dilli, which falls in the Greater Kailash Assembly constituency. At the time, he urged other MLAs to follow suit. “The AAP and its MLAs used to hold Sundarkand paath across the city. A new organisation is being built ground up and the Sundarkand paath will be brought back in a structured way. Tomorrow onwards, AAP MLAs, councillors and party workers will hold a big Sundarkand paath. I would like to invite everyone to the event. This programme will be held in every Vidhan Sabha [segment], and then in every ward and mandal monthly. There will be 2,600 of these events each month eventually,” Bharadwaj said. The AAP has over the past few years held similar public events, with Chief Minister Minister Arvind Kejriwal singing Hanuman chalisa on live television, days before the 2020 Assembly polls, in which the party won 62 out of the 70 seats. According to AAP sources, while the chief minister will make clear the party’s stand on attending the January 22 Ram Mandir consecration ceremony only after getting a formal invitation, the party does not want to give the impression that it is taking a stand against the temple. “The decision on whether to attend or not will be taken in due course. Congress leaders have already stated that they will not attend and they are our alliance partners. Irrespective of the final decision, we want to make it very clear to the people that we are not opposed to Ram,” said a senior AAP leader.
