Yogi rakes up Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi issue ahead of UP polls

Apparently reiterating that the Mathura issue was on his party's agenda in the forthcoming assembly polls in the state, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said that after
Ayodhya and Kashi it was the 'turn' of Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi at Mathura.

''Ayodhya mein bhavya Ram Mandir nirman karya prarambh ho gaya hai....Kashi mein bhi Vishwanath Dham ban raha hai...aise mein Mathura-Vrindavan kaise chookega,'' (a grand Ram Temple is under construction at Ayodhya...Kashi Vishwanath Dham is also being constructed....how can Mathura-Vrindavan be left behind?), Adityanath said while addressing a public meeting at Amroha, about 400 kilometres from here, on Wednesday evening.

He said that a 'Braj Development Council' had already been formed and soon a grand temple would be built there keeping in view the faith of the Hindus.

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Before Adityanath, his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya had asked the party workers to be prepared for Mathura. ''Ayodhya, Kashi Bhavya mandir nirman jari hai, Mathura ki tayyari hai'' (construction is going on in Ayodhya and Varanasi, Now preparing for Mathura), Maurya said in a post on his Twitter handle.

Adityanath's remarks came within days of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had spearheaded the movement for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, declaring that it would take up the Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi issue in 2024, the year in which general elections would be held in the country.

''We will not take up the Mathura issue until the Ram Temple is complete.....the idol of Ram Lalla will be installed in the sanctum-sanctorum by 2023....we will discuss the Mathura issue in 2024,'' VHP president Alok Kumar had said. The VHP had earlier said that Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi was not on its agenda.

UP minister and senior BJP leader Raghuraj Singh had also said that 'liberating' the Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi was on the BJP 'agenda' and that the saffron party was ready to make any 'sacrifice' for the same.

A petition claiming ownership of the entire land on which the Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi was situated and seeking removal of the adjoining Shahi Idgah Mosque was accepted by a district court in Mathura. The petition has sought the removal of the Shahi Idgah mosque, which was adjacent to the existing Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi, from the complex and has challenged the agreement signed between the Shrikrishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and Shahi Idgah Mosque Management Committee in 1968. It claimed ownership over the entire 13.37 acres of land on which they were situated. 

Hindu outfits claim that a portion of the Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi temple had been demolished during the Mughal period and claim ownership over the entire complex. 

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