The Sangh Parivar looks all set to position itself to repeat the ‘Gujarat Formula’ in the forthcoming Assembly elections in nine states. As a first step, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas today vowed to construct the temple at Ayodhya within one-and-a-half-years.Nyas chairman Ramchandradas Paramhans declared: ‘‘We don’t need the consent of the government or the judiciary to build the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Any delay in the construction is unacceptable. We will not tolerate this insult to Hinduism. We will complete the construction within one-and-a-half years. We won’t divulge the date, but the stones are ready. The cranes are with us.’’Elections are due in Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya in March 2003 and in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh in November 2003. The BJP stakes are highest in Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and HP. The parivar believes the Gujarat effect has already spilled over to Rajasthan and, if stoked further, may yield a windfall in other Hindi-speaking states too.The VHP programme is likely to be scheduled in such a way that it influences both sets of elections. Mahant Avaidyanath, who heads the committee set up by the VHP to accelerate the temple movement, announced that a dharam sansad of religious leaders will meet in New Delhi on February 22 and 23 to formulate the strategy for the construction. ‘‘We can announce the toughest steps,’’ he said. The dharam sansad will meet before the March polls and the construction programme may be started before November.Paramhans demanded a restoration of the land acquired by the government from the Nyas. He declared: ‘‘We have no plan to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee He may meet us, if he wants. He also lashed out at Vajpayee for going back on his support to the cause ‘‘which he used to expound’’ before assuming power.When asked if he expected the BJP to change its stand in the wake of the Gujarat victory, Paramhans said, ‘‘Don’t you yourself see a change in the BJP stand?’’ He describing the Gujarat verdict as a ‘‘victory of Hindutva and the Ram temple movement’’ and said Vajpayee would have to ‘‘adopt’’ Ram to continue with this victory march. The party, he pointed out, had paid heavily for abandoning its core issues like Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura and Article 370.
