Won't fall for BJP's Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi bait, say Opposition parties

AAP MP Sanjay Singh said the BJP was raking up these issues now that elections were around the corner, to divide the people along religious lines

Apparently sensing an ''electoral trap'', the opposition parties reacted guardedly to Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's remarks asking his party supporters to 'prepare' for Mathura (Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi).

"Ayodhya, Kashi Bhavya mandir nirman jari hai, Mathura ki tayyari hai" (construction is going on in Ayodhya and Varanasi, Now preparing for Mathura), Maurya had said in a post on his Twitter handle on Wednesday.

Maurya, whose remarks generated a lot of political heat in the poll-bound state, upped the ante on Thursday by asking the opposition leaders to 'clear' their stand on the issue. The parties, however, appeared in no mood to take the 'bait'.

"BJP has sensed defeat in the forthcoming polls.....it has seen the writing on the wall and therefore has raked up the issue of Mathura as its last weapon...the people of the state are too wise not to see through the game plan of the saffron party," BSP supremo Mayawati said on Thursday.

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"It appears to be a well thought out strategy of the BJP.....they want to polarise the polls and setting a trap for us but we will not take the bait....the issue has reached the courts and we all should wait for its decision," said a senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader while reacting to Maurya's remarks.

Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that the BJP, which did not remember Kashi and Mathura during its four-and-half-year rule in the state, was raking up these issues now that elections were around the corner, to divide the people along religious lines.

Maurya, however, remained unfazed by the controversy and sought to know from the opposition leaders about their stand on the issue.

"Akhilesh Yadav (SP president) keeps saying that he is a disciple of Lord Krishna.....if it is so then he must reveal if he wants a Shrikrishna Temple at Mathura or not," he said.

Maurya also said that Mathura was not an election issue for the BJP. "Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura are not election issues for us...they are issues of faith for the Hindus," he said.

BJP leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath had dropped hints that 'Hindutva' was one of their party's major planks in the forthcoming assembly polls. In his public meetings, Adityanath had sought to paint his rivals as 'pro-Muslim' parties, who during their regime, spent money on renovating graveyards and thwarted attempts to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

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