Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addresses an election rally in Delhi. (File Photo)

AYODHYA: Attributing Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections to the Ayodhya movement and the blessings of seers, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath unveiled a 7-foot rosewood statue of Kodamb Ram, a stage of Ram’s life, at a government museum in Ayodhya on Friday.

“Main Ayodhya ke santon ka abhaar vyakt karta hoon ki unke aashirvaad se BJP ko mananiya Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi ke netritva mein prachand bahumat haasil hua... iss jeet ki aadhaarshila Ayodhya hai (I’m grateful to the seers of Ayodhya for their blessings due to which BJP, under the leadership of PM Modi, got an overwhelming majority… the foundation of this victory is Ayodhya),” Yogi said on the occasion. This was his first visit to the temple town after the NDA government came to power at the Centre for the second consecutive term.

The CM, who also took part in the birthday celebrations of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, went on to detail how the people of India had “rejected negativity in politics” and how “everybody’s wish” was to see a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. “We should all have one goal — the goal of nationalism. Our wish is to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya,” he said.

Terming Kumbh and Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya as milestones of his government, Yogi said the town had piloted several public welfare programmes, including construction of toilets, houses to the poor, and electricity connections.

The Kodamb Ram statue, made of a single block of rosewood, will remain on display at Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan, the government-funded museum that hosts works on Ramayana. The museum was established in 1986.

The statue, which was purchased from Karnataka for Rs 35 lakh, depicted one of the five stages of Ram’s life, the other four being Baal Ram, Raja Ram, Dulha Ram and Vanvasi Ram, said museum director Y P Singh. Different stages of the deity are worshipped in different parts of the country. Kodamb Ram is worshipped in the south and depicts the stage of Ram’s life when his wife Sita was kidnapped by demon king Ravan.

Yogi also released a special postal cover on the statue and a few books on the occasion. He then visited the Hanumangarhi temple and inspected an under-construction pump house at Ram ki Pairi on the banks of the Saryu.

Ayodhya has been at the heart of a decades-old dispute involving a site that many believe marks the birthplace of Lord Ram. Last year, the state government had announced a project to erect a 221-metre Ram statue on the banks of the Saryu, taller than even Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity in Gujarat.

