Uddhav Thackeray to visit Ayodhya 'with lakhs of people'

Even as the Supreme Court is all set to resume the hearing in the Ayodhya case later this month, the Shiv Sena said on Thursday that its president Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya after Diwali this year.

The decision came a day after Ram Janmabhoomi Trust chief Janmejay Sharanji Maharaj met Thackeray at the party's headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Sena's senior leader Sanjay Raut said Thackeray had accepted the invitation of Janmejay to visit Ayodhya. He also said that the party chief would visit the holy town with lakhs of people.

“Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya not alone but with lakhs of people after this Diwali.  Sharanji invited him to Ayodhya and also held a meeting with him yesterday,” Raut said, reported news agency ANI.

Raut said Thackeray would announce the date of his visit to Ayodhya at the party's annual Dussehra rally to be held in Mumbai on October 19.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Trust is of the view that without Shiv Sena's power, determination and belief, Ram temple cannot be built, Raiut said. If the Ram temple is not constructed now, then it cannot be constructed ever, he added.

"The Sena has always championed the cause of Ram temple in Ayodhya. The BJP, despite being in power for four years, has not yet fulfilled its commitment of building a grand Ram temple there," Raut said.

With the general elections less than a year away, the Ram temple issue has once again become the hot topic of political parties. Sena has often targeted its ally, the BJP, for "delaying" the construction of the temple despite having a majority.

The Supreme Court last week said the civil suit on the Ayodhya land dispute would be heard by a newly-constituted three-judge bench on October 29.