Describing Lord Ram as a personalty who is "ideal of all people", a Congress MLA from Indore district on Wednesday announced to take residents from his constituency for pilgrimage to Ayodhya at his own expense to fulfil their desire to visit the temple town in Uttar Pradesh.
The first batch of 600 pilgrims from here will leave for Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram, on December 18 by a train, Sanjay Shukla, the Congress MLA from the Indore-1 constituency, said in a statement.
Shukla said, "Lord Ram is ideal of all of us. I want to fulfil the desire of every person of my assembly constituency to visit the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya".
The MLA said 17 wards of the Indore Municipal Corporation fall in his assembly constituency. The legislator said he will take common citizens of each ward for Ayodhya visit every month at his own expense.
The BJP took potshots at Shukla over the announcement. Indore city BJP president Gaurav Ranadive said, "Lord Ram has given wisdom to Shukla. Lord Ram belongs to everyone. Accusing the Congress of seeing common people only as a vote bank, the BJP leader said Shukla should not select citizens for Ayodhya visit on the basis of their political leanings.