Kalraj tries selling BJP line to saints

While Kalraj was in Ayodhya today, Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand has also been moving in parts of the state and had claimed that a solution to the issue would come out after July 6. ‘‘The temple in Ayodhya will not be in the agenda of the party during next general elections (meaning that by then, a solution would have been found).

The shrines at Kanshi and Mathura have never been on BJP agenda,’’ he said in Saharanpur. Kalraj began his tour to Ayodhya and Faizabad with a meeting with local workers who raised pro-temple slogans and demanded that temple construction be started soon.

He also met Purshottam Acharya of the Sugriv Quila, Madhu Acharya of Asharfi Bhawan, Swami Kantacharya of Totatri Mutt, Jagdish Das of Hanuman Bagh and finally chairman of the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas, Mahant Ramchand Paramhans. Three of the saints whom Kalraj met today, including Paramhans, are Nyas members, one of over two dozen bodies floated by the VHP for temple construction.

Meanwhile, Kalraj maintained that his visit was a routine one and he had no political message to deliver there. ‘‘I usually come to Ayodhya for a darshan of Ram lalla and seek blessings from the saints. Everybody wants that the Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya but there is a procedure for everything,’’ he said.

While Kalraj has chosen to distance himself from the VHP’s role on the issue, Chinmayanand feels VHP working president Ashok Singhal will tone down the rhetoric after July 6. ‘‘He will not speak harsh after July 6,’’ he said.

BJP UP chief Vinay Katiyar is facing a predicament because he cannot afford to go against the VHP for being an active partner in the temple town nor can he go for the hardline his party has adopted to assume command of the movement by sidelining VHP. ‘‘I have written to MPs of all parties to come out in favour of the temple,’’ he said while maintaining silence over the Kanchi Shankaracharya’s role.