JOIN USAkhilesh to follow 'Karnataka strategy' to counter BJP in UP
When Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC President D K Shivakumar had, barely a week before the assembly polls in the southern state, promised to build new Hanuman temples, it was perceived to be a damage-control exercise after the grand old party came under attack from saffron outfits and the BJP over the former's manifesto claiming that it would ban organisations like PFI and Bajrang Dal if voted to power.
Congress' resounding win in the Karnataka Assembly polls, however, appears to have prompted Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav to 'emulate' the strategy of ''soft Hindutva'' in Uttar Pradesh to counter the BJP.
Signalling that it is ready to adopt 'soft Hindutva' strategy in UP, the SP has decided to hold a two-day workers' training camp at the religious town of Naimisharanya, which is almost as revered as Ayodhya, in the state's Sitapur district.
According to SP leaders, the camp will begin with the recital of vedic mantra and religious hymns.
''151 vedis (platforms where the rituals are performed) will be prepared for havan (ritual by fire) and offering puja...Akhilesh and other senior SP leaders will perform the puja,'' said a senior SP leader while speaking to DH here on Tuesday.
''The SP leaders, including Akhilesh, will also visit the Lalita Devi temple at Naimisharanya to pay obeisance there,'' he added.
More than five thousand SP workers are likely to attend the camp.
The selection of Naimisharanya for the Camp assumes significance as the place, according to the Hindu scriptures, was where 88 thousand 'rishis' (sages) had sat in the forests and performed 'tapa' (meditation), and Ved Vyas, the Hindu 'rishi', had revealed the Vedas, Puranas and Shastras to them.
All the senior party leaders have also been asked to stay at Naimisharanya for the entire duration of the Camp, the SP leader said.
''BJP tried to use Bajarang Bali (Hanuman) in Karnataka polls but lost the polls......Congress also used the name of Hanuman and won there,'' the leader remarked hinting that the SP would be resorting to soft Hindutva to counter the BJP in UP, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.