Chiephobozou: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that his party's leaders will find it difficult to attend the January 22 Ram temple consecration ceremony since the BJP and RSS had transformed it into a "political event" centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His comments during a press conference here during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra come just days after the Congress' senior brass denied an invitation to the ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
"The Ram temple consecration ceremony is a political event centred around the prime minister. The BJP and the RSS are giving an election flavour to it and that is why it is difficult for us to attend," Gandhi said. "It is difficult for us to attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony when our principal opponents the BJP and the RSS have captured the function and turned it into election event," he said.
On the opposition INDIA bloc, the Congress leader said the alliance will defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The seat-sharing discussions among INDIA bloc partners are being carried out amicably, he said. "I am confident that small problems within the INDIA bloc will be resolved and we will together defeat the BJP. The issue of seat sharing is being taken up with INDIA bloc allies. Talks are going quite well," Gandhi said.
He asserted that the opposition alliance will win the Lok Sabha poll together. The yatra reached Nagaland on Monday evening after it began in Thoubal in Manipur on January 14.
With PTI inputs