LUCKNOW, June 29, 2013: BJP leader and UP incharge Amit Shah will visit Ayodhya on July 6. The meeting of Awadh Prant unit of the party will be held in Faizabad. Shah is likely to visit Ram temple at disputed site in Ayodhya after the meeting. Though BJP has described Faizabad meeting as a 'routine thing', sources said that Shah's Ayodhya visit would be to invoke Hindutava issue ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

UP BJP chief spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that Amit Shah is incharge of UP and would be visiting the state to hold meeting with office-bearers and workers of various units of the party in the state. "Instead of holding meetings in Lucknow, it has been decided to hold them at different places to have a feel of ground realities. The meeting of the Awadh Prant is scheduled in Faizabad," he told reporters.

Earlier this month, soon after his appointment as campaign committee chief of the party, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was invited by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to take part in a function in Aydodhya. However, he turned down the invitation citing preoccupation. Sources said that he wanted to avoid a controversy as Ayodhya visit would have strengthen his hardliner hindutava image.

Now, Modi is sending his right hand man Shah to make up for the loss. Modi is treading cautiously. While he is raising the development agenda, he has left his lieutenant to aggressively pursue the hindutava agenda to polarise votes on communal lines. Construction of Ram temple at dispute site in Ayodhya has always been in BJP's agenda but was put on the back burner after formation of the NDA.

Babri mosque-Ram temple dispute in Ayodhya was responsible for BJP's rise at the national level in 90s. Party had then won majority of Lok Sabha seats out of total 80 in UP. However, after demolition of Babri mosque in 1992, the graph of the BJP is on decline. Modi is hoping to revive BJP in UP by raising the hardcore Hindutava agenda. Ram temple in Ayodhya is an important part of the scheme of things.

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 29, 2013.