‘Temple agitation to resume after Assembly polls’

De Facto VHP chief Pravin Togadia said today that the agitation for the Ram Temple will now resume only after the Assembly elections. The de...

De Facto VHP chief Pravin Togadia said today that the agitation for the Ram Temple will now resume only after the Assembly elections. The decision is significant as it comes after a defiant stir early this month when the VHP rejected suggestions from the BJP and RSS and sought to gather its activists in Ayodhya.

Speaking to The Indian Express on phone, Togadia said his becoming the de facto chief shows the trust which VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Vishnu Hari Dalmia have in him. Singhal recently said in Allahabad that due to his failing health, Togadia would be — for all practical purposes — the organisational head.

‘‘During the October 13-17 stir, it was decided that I would remain underground and take all the decisions. I was given the authority to talk to the Centre or UP government,’’ Togadia today revealed. ‘‘RSS had conveyed to us the Centre’s and Mulayam Singh’s proposal to allow a rally outside Ayodhya, but we had rejected it. We had asked them if it won’t happen in Ayodhya, what’s the use,’’ Togadia said.

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Now, he says, any further talk of a temple stir has been reserved for the post-election phase.

Dilip Deodhar, who has written extensively on the RSS, says the reason for the VHP’s decision to lie low until the elections is that senior RSS bosses Madan Das Devi, K.S. Sudershan, H.V. Seshadri and Mohan Bhagwat have issued such instructions to the organisation.

Speaking from Chennai, RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said the VHP was free to chalk out its independent plan for a temple stir. ‘‘We only insist that there should be no personal attacks on anyone, including Vajpayee and Advani,’’ he said.

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