With less than a month to go for the Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in the temple town on Saturday to inaugurate and lay foundation stones of development projects worth Rs 15,700 crore for Uttar Pradesh, including projects worth Rs 11,100 crore for Ayodhya. The PM will unveil a new international airport, a new greenfield township, a railway station, and four pathways, among other things. Modi will inaugurate the redeveloped Ayodhya railway station and then flag off two new Amrit Bharat trains and six new Vande Bharat trains at 11.15 am. At around 12.15 PM, the PM will inaugurate the newly built Ayodhya airport, named the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. At 1 pm, the PM is scheduled to address a public meeting and then inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of infrastructure projects. To enhance accessibility to the temple, Modi will inaugurate four newly redeveloped roads — Rampath, Bhaktipath, Dharampath, and Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Path. The PM’s visit will set the tone for the run-up to the consecration ceremony of the temple idol on January 22. The Sangh Parivar has mobilised for the event and is taking its outreach initiatives across India and some other countries. In context: The consecration of the idol of Ram Lalla will mark the end of one of the BJP's important ideological projects. Three decades ago, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement led by L K Advani, which led to the demolition of Babri Masjid, set in motion a chain of events that propelled the party from the margins of electoral politics to the centre of national politics. It transformed the BJP into the principal challenger of the Congress. “The Temple is not just about clinching an ideological issue,” a BJP leader told Vikas Pathak earlier this week. “It is also about telling people that the BJP delivers what it promises, unlike other parties. Be it giving free foodgrains to 81 crore people, ensuring Covid vaccination, or be it the Ram Temple finally becoming a reality or Article 370 becoming a thing of the past, multiple things add up in the minds of voters as ‘Modi’s guarantees’, which will always get fulfilled. This is the message that the party is delivering to voters everywhere.” The temple inauguration has also put the Opposition in a dilemma — to attend or not to attend. The Congress has not yet made up its mind about attending it, Manoj CG reported earlier this week. The CPI(M) has ruled itself out while the JD(U) and JMM have said they will attend if invited. Congress on seat-sharing The second day of meetings of the Congress’s National Alliance Committee will continue with leaders from the states where the party is likely to contest the general election in an alliance with other constituents of the INDIA bloc. The Congress, according to a senior leader, is ready to be flexible but national factors will take precedence over state factors. The Congress is ready to go the extra mile to accommodate its allies, as reported by Manoj CG. The committee is likely to submit a report to party president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday or the day after providing details for the negotiation — listing the seats where the Congress is in a strong position. After this, the negotiations with allies will formally begin. Among the states where the party is expected to face problems over seat negotiations are Punjab, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. In West Bengal, Mohammad Salim, the state secretary of ally CPI(M), said on Friday, “We have decided to continue our fight against both the TMC and the BJP. Those parties which will maintain a close relationship with either the TMC or the BJP in this state, we will maintain distance from them as well.” Maharashtra Congress, meanwhile, is irked about Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut’s remark that seat-sharing talks would start from zero. Will Rajasthan get new ministers? The BJP government in Rajasthan is likely to induct new ministers on Saturday, according to PTI. The ministers are likely to take oath at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan at 3.30 pm. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma was in Delhi to meet the BJP high command on Friday. Bhagwat in Bengal RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be in West Bengal over the weekend during which he is expected to meet public figures such as All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey, actor Victor Banerjee and former CBI joint director Upen Biswas. Chaubey joined the BJP and unsuccessfully contested the 2021 Assembly polls for the party, while Biswas joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after retiring from the CBI and was Minister for Backward Class Welfare from 2011 to 2016. He resigned from the TMC in 2021. Bhagwat's visit comes days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda visited Kolkata to discuss electoral strategy with the state leadership. — With PTI inputs
