The BJP will work to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya by
finding a quick solution through legal means if voted to power in Uttar
Pradesh, party president Amit Shah said on Saturday.
Releasing the party’s manifesto for the seven-phase assembly
elections in UP, he addressed an emotive issue for the BJP’s predominantly
Hindu electorate.
“The BJP is in favour of early construction of the Ram
temple within the constitutional framework,” he said.
The controversy has been raging for decades since the
demolition of the Ayodhya’s Babri mosque in December 1992. A range of Hindu
organisations are seeking to build a Ram temple at the site, a case that is
being heard by the Supreme Court.
“Temple and development aren’t contradictory,” Shah said.
The BJP, which is canvassing votes on a development agenda,
promised to waive off loans of small and marginal farmers, distribute laptops
to the youth, and offer free education up to class 12 for girls.
“Temple and development aren’t contradictory
The party pledged a fund of Rs 150 crore for agricultural
development in the next five years, including a Rs 20,000-crore irrigation
scheme that will put special focus on Bundelkhand, one of the poorest regions
in the state that has been hit by back-to-back droughts.
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says will make state the most comfortable place
“Will distribute laptops to youth with 1GB free Internet if
voted to power in UP,” Shah said.
The BJP chief said 7 million jobs and self-employment
opportunities would be created if the party forms the government.
Shah also raised the issue of alleged “palayan” or exodus of
Hindus in some Muslim-majority towns of western UP, especially Kairana.
Top BJP leaders had ratcheted up the alleged Hindu migration
from Kairana to attack the Samajwadi Party government in the state ahead of the
assembly elections.
Shah said a BJP government in the state would hold district
magistrates responsible for people fleeing their homes for fear of religious
persecution.
The party chief appealed to the people to give his party a
chance to work for the all-round development of UP, saying a BJP government
will lift the state from its “bimaru” status, a euphemism for underdeveloped
states.
“I appeal to the people to give us one opportunity and we
promise to turn UP into a developed state,” Shah said.
The party promised in its manifesto that 10 new
international-standard universities will be set up in the state, including one
exclusive institute for higher studies on Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic
systems.
Trying to catch the poor voter’s attention, the party
promised a Rs 2 lakh insurance for each worker in the unorganised sector, free
LPG cylinders to everyone below a minimum income cap, and piped cooking gas for
urban UP.
The BJP promised 24-hour power supply across the state, with
the poor paying just Rs 3 a unit if the metre reading doesn’t exceed 300 units.
Pushing the government’s commitment for women and the girl
child, the BJP promised Rs 5,000 to each newborn daughter born to a poor
family.
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victory for NDA candidate to become next President
It will also launch a special drive to know Muslim women’s
opinion on triple talaq. A debate rages in the country over abolition of the
Islamic practice of a man divorcing his wife simply by uttering the word talaq
thrice.
The party chief is credited for the BJP’s impressive show in
the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when it won 71 of the 80 parliamentary seats in the
state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah are spearheading the BJP’s
campaign to regain power in UP, a politically crucial state from where it has
been out of power since 2002.
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