Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday, 25 July, offered prayers at the site of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and took stock of preparations, ahead of foundation laying of the temple on 5 August.
Adityanath also held a meeting with Ayodhya MP, MLAs and members of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and local administration.
“The prime minister will be visiting Ayodhya. We will make Ayodhya the pride of India and the world. Cleanliness should be the first condition. There is an opportunity for Ayodhya to prove through self-discipline its capability and be the way the world expects to see it,” he said.
“We all will be coming together for an auspicious event. There will be ‘deepotsava’ in all houses and temples on the nights of 4 and 5 August. Deepawali is associated with Ayodhya and the festival cannot even be imagined without Ayodhya,” the chief minister said.
Meanwhile, sources told The Quint that Home Minister Amit Shah invited Advani for the 'Bhoomi Pujan' (ground breaking ceremony) to be held on 5 August in Ayodhya for the construction of the temple. Advani had led the Ram temple agitation in the nineties.
Shah spent about half-an-hour with Advani on 22 July and talked about various issues including the Babri case and the Ram temple construction, sources said.
Advani appeared before a special CBI court in the Babri mosque demolition case on Friday, 24 July, and recorded his statement through video conferencing under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Advani is an accused in this case.
Senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi also recorded his statement on 23 July.
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