Ram temple issue, BJP's pre-poll 'political gimmick' : Oppn

With various saffron outfits upping their ante on the Ram temple issue in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh opposition parties Monday dubbed their activities as a BJP's "political gimmick" before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls aimed at exploiting the peoples' "sentiments" in its favour.

"The BJP is once again playing the Ram temple card to exploit the sentiments of people in its favour before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It is a political gimmick as the BJP does not have any development agenda and has decided to rely on an issue which is subjudice," Samajwadi Party leader and MLC Rajpal Kashyap told PTI.

He said the state government has "nothing to its credit in over one year and eight months of its rule".

"Except for renaming and relaunching projects started by the previous SP regime, the BJP government has done nothing on the ground and the people are well aware of it," he said, adding that raking up the Ram temple issue and renaming cities will not work this time and the BJP is "bound to taste defeat".

"In the bye-elections, the BJP had to face humiliating defeats in the constituencies of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur) and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya (Phulpur). It's enough to show public sentiments," he said.

Congress spokesperson Mukesh Singh Chauhan too endorsed the SP leader's views. He said, "The BJP's prime agenda is to divide the society and take political mileage out of it.

Raking up the Ram temple issue and promoting its outfits for the same is the BJP's strategy to win the 2019 polls."