Uddhav invites Prez to Kalaram temple
Thackeray demands that the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya be performed by Murmu
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has extended an invitation to President Droupadi Murmu to attend a pooja of Lord Ram at the Kalaram temple in Nashik on January 22. The pooja will be performed on the same day as the BJP’S consecration ceremony of Ram at Ayodhya.
Revealing this in a press conference at his residence, Matoshree, on Saturday morning, Thackeray, in a jibe aimed at the BJP, said that when the Somnath temple was reconstructed, the then President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was an honoured guest at the ‘pranpratisthapana’ ceremony. “The current President of India, Droupadi Murmu, should also be invited for the ceremony at Ayodhya,” he said, adding that the BJP may or may not have invited her, but the Sena (UBT) had. In response, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said that Thackeray was not aware that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had already invited the President.
Thackeray said the Shiv Sena (UBT) would perform an aarti of the Godavari river and take out a rally of party workers at Nashik. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for a Diwali-like celebration on January 22, he said: “While advocating Diwali, they should also talk about how they led the country to diwala (bankruptcy).” He also said that the views of the Shankaracharyas, who objected to the consecration ceremony at an incomplete temple, must be taken into account.
Thackeray also toured Kalyan-dombivli on Saturday and launched a frontal attack on rival Eknath Shinde and his son, MP Shrikant Shinde, in the latter’s Lok Sabha constituency, Kalyan. Asking party workers to “bury the traitor’s dynasty” in the elections, he said he had made a mistake by trusting a turncoat.
Thackeray visited the controversial Shiv Sena shakha at Kolsewadi in Kalyan (to which both factions staked a claim some months ago), Ambernath, Ulhanagar, Diva, Mumbra and Kalwa with close aide Sanjay Raut.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at a youth conclave in Nashik on Friday, urging the youth to join politics to help reduce the influence of dynastic politics, Thackeray said the BJP no longer wanted the Thackeray family which had supported it, but was welcoming a back-stabber’s family.