BJP stresses on Ram temple at launch of UP campaign

Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Sunday launched the party's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, pledging to build Ram temple at Ayodhya.

They also accused the United Progressive Alliance government of indulging in appeasement politics and attacked the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime for deteriorating law and order in the state.

L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh, along with a host of leaders, kicked off the campaign by addressing rallies at Agra, Jhansi and Kanpur respectively.

Kalyan Singh will be the chief ministerial candidate for the crucial seven-phased Assembly polls beginning April 7, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitly said in Lucknow.

Crediting the saffron party's rise to power at the Centre to the Ayodhya campaign, Advani told a large public meeting in Agra that 'Ram temple objective is yet to be completed'.

The former deputy prime minister, who referred to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the Ayodhya issue without naming him, cited a cartoon in a magazine of the young Congress MP, saying, "The cartoon carried a remark that had that family been active in the 12th century, Babri Mosque would not have ever been erected."

Terming the UP polls as crucial, he said its outcome would decide which party will rule the country after the next Lok Sabha elections.

In Kanpur, Kalyan Singh said BJP was committed to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

"This is not an issue linked to politics. It involves the faith of crores of people across the country," he said.

In Jhansi, Rajnath Singh, accompanied by ally JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, attacked the UPA government for failing to curb rising prices and indulging in appeasement politics of minorities.