West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of staging a "gimmick show" with the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported. The TMC leader stated that "she does not support celebrations that exclude other communities." Banerjee stated during a public event in Joynagar, South 24 Parganas district, that she does not believe in segregating people along religious lines.
"I believe in festivities that take along people from all communities and speak about unity. The BJP is doing it (Ram Mandir inauguration) under court instruction but doing it before Lok Sabha polls as a gimmick show," she said.
"I don't believe in dividing people on religious lines," she said.
The Ram temple in Ayodhya will be consecrated on January 22, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and over 6,000 people scheduled to attend the 'Pran Pratistha' event.
'BJP Govt Is Against Minorities; Our Gods Are Pichhade, Dalit And Alpasankhyak': SP Chief
On Tuesday, Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP-led government, claiming that it is anti-minorities. "This government is against minorities. Our God is PDA--Pichhade, Dalit and Alpasankhayak (Backwards, Dalit and Minority)," he was quoted by ANI in its report.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly stated that the BJP-led NDA will be destroyed in the general elections next year by the "PDA," which he defines as "Pichde Dalit Alpasankhyak."
"Removing the BJP from Uttar Pradesh means withdrawing of BJP from the country. Defeat 80, remove the BJP, and socialist people are working on this slogan. Only PDA will compete with NDA," SP chief said.
In the meantime, amid a squabble over several issues in the INDIA bloc, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has stated that his party fully supports the alliance and that the people of India want the BJP to be removed.
"As far as the alliance is concerned, the Samajwadi Party stands with full responsibility in the alliance. We will know very soon that who should fight from where. One thing is clear that not only the people of Uttar Pradesh but the entire country wants to remove the Bharatiya Janata Party. You cannot fulfill the dream of a developed India by giving the slogan of 'developed India' and taking vehicles to every village and cutting off the share of the states' budget," he said.
Slamming BJP's mission of doubling farmer income by 2022, Akhilesh Yadav said, "The Bharatiya Janata Party is promoting the idea that India will become developed. The BJP said that farmer's income would double but it did not happen. SP has promised that the unemployed people of the country will get respectable employment."