The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, and the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, attended the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, making them the rare Opposition, non-BJP faces to make it to the event.
Mr. Gowda, whose Janata Dal (Secular) is now in alliance in with the BJP in Karnataka in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls later in the year, was accompanied by his son and former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy at the event. Speaking after the ceremony, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he considered himself “very lucky” to have witnessed the event. “In our life this is a historic time. We require a peaceful society with the blessings of Lord Ram. We pray for the country’s progress with the blessings of Lord Ram,” he said.
Mr. Naidu, who was accompanied by NDA ally Pawan Kalyan of the Janasena Party, was another surprise guest, and he too said this was a “historic occasion” which he was glad to witness.
While the alliance position between the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) is clear, it is still a piquant development with regard to the Ram Temple as Mr. Gowda became Prime Minister in 1996 after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government fell in 13 days, failing to get enough numbers in the Lok Sabha, with the Opposition parties opposing the BJP’s agenda on the Ram Temple movement.
Mr. Naidu’s alliance position is still ambiguous although, his own ally, Mr. Pawan Kalyan is an NDA member. Mr. Naidu has avoided commenting on this situation in the past, but sources have said that he is desirous of such an alliance coming off before the Lok Sabha polls.
