Ayodhya no longer an election issue: Senior UP Cong leader

Senior Uttar Pradesh Congress leader and Faizabad candidate Nirmal Khatri on Thursday claimed that the Ayodhya dispute was no longer an election plank in the Lok Sabha election and said the BJP was distancing itself from the issue.

The former state Congress chief also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his first Ayodhya visit in five years.

"The issue of construction of a temple of Lord Ram seems to have vanished from the electoral landscape. The issue of Ram temple for the past few elections had no longer been an issue for the voters of Faizabad," Khatri told PTI in an interview.

The 68-year-old underscored that had the Ayodhya issue been relevant, then he would not have won in 2009 from Faizabad, where the temple town is located.

Khatri said the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue only existed in the national media and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2014 election not due to it.

"People of Faizabad understand that politics is being done in the garb of this issue and the intention of the BJP is not right. Hence, this issue is no longer an issue," Khatri said. "When those (BJP) who had nurtured this issue as an issue have distanced themselves from this issue, then a message has automatically gone."
Asked about Vadra not contesting from Modi's constituency of Varanasi, Khatri said: "She (Vadra) is a leader of national stature and is from a family on which there is the 'daaromdaar' (responsibility) of the Congress party. I think she has given more priority to campaign for other party candidates than her own personal (electoral) contest."