Kolkata:

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday asserted that the presence of opposition leaders on the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya may have relegated them to a supporting position in a programme which, he claimed, belonged to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Supporting the Congress management’s resolution to skip the January 22 occasion, Mr Tharoor expressed willingness to go to the temple after the final elections are over when all of the political give attention to the shrine dies down.

“The Congress’ place may be very very clear. The Congress social gathering members are free to have their very own faith and non secular beliefs, and everybody’s faith is revered by the social gathering. So I am going to temples to hope, and to not political occasions,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP mentioned.

“This specific occasion (consecration of Ram temple) was basically going to relegate the opposition invitees to a sort of supporting position for a major ministerial starring spectacle. I didn’t suppose that Congress wanted to play such a supporting position,” he advised reporters.

Senior Congress leaders together with social gathering president Mallikarjun Kharge, former chief Sonia Gandhi and Chief of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have ‘respectfully declined’ the Ram Temple consecration ceremony invite.

Mr Tharoor additional emphasised that folks ought to perceive that the BJP has no monopoly on both Lord Ram or any of the Hindu deities.

“However I’m fairly positive that numerous Congress folks will go outdoors the political context. I, myself, would like to go and see the temple (at Ayodhya) however I might do it solely after the elections, after all of the political focus dies down. We don’t wish to be a part of BJP’s political train,” he advised reporters.

Unwilling to take questions on the continued seat-sharing fiasco between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, Mr Tharoor mentioned that the matter is being sorted by the management of his social gathering.

“This complete alliance or seat-sharing is being mentioned on a state-by-state foundation. Nobody goes to have a one-side fix-all answer,” he mentioned.

Mr Tharoor additionally dodged a query on whether or not the Congress is seeking to survive in West Bengal with the help of the TMC.

He mentioned, “We’re all targeted on the crucial want of adjusting the Union authorities. The federal government of Mr Modi and the BJP in New Delhi will must be modified and that’s the final goal of all of us,” he mentioned.

On the potential for Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar becoming a member of fingers with the BJP forward of the Lok Sabha elections, Tharoor mentioned, “I’m following this within the media. This isn’t in my space of duty. When such a improvement happens, you’ll hear it from the social gathering.”

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)