Press Trust of India Posted online: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 1108 hours IST
New Delhi, Aug 25: A day after the fall of the BJP-BSP government in Uttar Pradesh, state BJP president Vinay Katiyar on Tuesday declared the ASI report on Ayodhya would be a key issue in the next UP Assembly polls.
Katiyar, who arrived in Delhi from Lucknow late on Monday night, said, "We will contest the elections on the five years' performance of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the ASI report which has vindicated our consistent claim that a temple predated the Babri structure at the disputed site."
The Faizabad MP, who was founder-president of VHP's youth wing — Bajrang Dal — and was in the forefront of the Ram temple agitation, also appealed to Muslims to take the initiative to return the Ram janamsthan in the wake of the ASI findings which were submitted to the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court last week.
"Such a move will go a long way towards establishing goodwill and fraternal relations between the two communities", he said.
BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had asked Muslim organisations on Monday to "rethink on their rigid stand" on the Ayodhya issue in the wake of the ASI findings and enter into a dialogue with Hindu groups.
Interestingly, Katiyar also demanded a probe into the alleged planting of sophisticated weapons on independent MLA from Pratapgarh, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who along with his father Uday Pratap Singh were detained under POTA.
"There should be a thorough investigation on the source of the weapons which were apparently planted on Raja Bhaiya," he said.
Except Union Minister Rajnath Singh, state BJP leaders had only made token protests when the MLA along with his octogenarian father were booked under POTA by the Mayawati government.
