Akhilesh Yadav Unleashes Ayodhya Card, Says Temples Won't Pay House And Water Tax, There Will Be Deepavali '365 Days A Year'

Unleashing the Ayodhya card, Yadav is vowing to waive municipal taxes charged from temples in order to "usher in real Ram Rajya". This, he says, will happen when he comes to power in the 2022 assembly elections.

Hamid Jafar, general secretary of Ayodhya SP, has said that this is a powerful counter move from Yadav to the Yogi Adityanath-led government's decision to bring a law to regulate religious places.

Akhilesh said, “Ayodhya will celebrate Deepavali throughout the year after SP comes to power. Ayodhya will get the status of a heritage city and all religious places there will be exempt from tax. Ayodhya is city of ‘vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ as it accommodates all religions. Our two corporators Haji Asad Ahmad and Mahendra Shukla are from the area that houses Ramjanmabhoomi and this exemplifies a secular Ayodhya.”

Yadav made this announcement during a meeting with a delegation of seers from Ayodhya. He met them at the SP headquarters in Lucknow.

Taking a dig at the opposition, and seemingly the SP, in particular, UP chief minister Adityanath has said that those who opposed Ram Mandir are now saying that Ram belongs to everyone. He said that this is what the Ram bhaktas used to say during the karseva -- that Ram belongs to everyone, and don’t oppose Ram Janmabhoomi.

Adityanath is reported to have said: "They ordered firing on Ram bhaktas and say that Ram doesn’t even exist. Now they have felt the power of Ram Bhakts and are saying that Ram belongs to everyone..."