On Friday, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, Mahant Satyendra Das, the Chief Priest at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir stated that no political party, including the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress, really cared about Ram Mandir.
In an exclusive report to The New Indian, he stated that the previous government’s only used to talk about developing Ayodhya and providing justice to Ram Janmabhoomi but they never worked in action. “The bigmouths never visited Lord Rama’a birthplace and kept on playing politics”, he said.
Mahant Satyendra Das, who has been serving Lord Rama idol at Ayodhya for several years now, added that UP CM Yogi Adityanath is the only Chief Minister who visited Ayodhya 40 times in the last 5 years for just evaluating and planning the development of Ayodhya and Ram Mandir. He added that while no other CM or PM had visited the site earlier, PM Modi himself had done the Shilanyas for the Ram Mandir.
“PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the ‘bhavya’ Ram Madir and looked personally into the formation of Trust”, he said adding that the BJP government ensured the members of the Trust were religious and dedicated in the worship of Lord Rama.
The 84-year-old Mahant also praised CM Yogi Adityanath for personally paying attention to the ongoing construction of Ram Mandir. Being a priest, though he remained resolute to favor any political party ahead of the elections, the report by New Indian says that the essence of Mahant’s interaction is a dead giveaway of what Ram Mandir may do this time in UP Elections.
Chief priest Satyendra Das has been regularly offering prayers to Lord Rama since he was appointed as a priest by the receiver of the disputed site on March 5, 1992. According to the reports, since the appointment, the salary of Mahant was Rs 100 per month. However, it was increased to Rs 13,000 per month by Yogi Adityanath after he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2018.
Legislative Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March, 2022 in seven phases to elect all 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 10 March 2022.