Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday invited former deputy prime minister LK Advani and Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi for the grand consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya next month.

This comes amid the temple trust has requested the two Bharatiya Janata Party stalwarts, not to attend the consecration event on grounds of age and health. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Alok Kumar said that both BJP veterans said that they will try their best to attend the January 22 event.

“राम मंदिर आंदोलन के पुरोधा आदरणीय लाल कृष्ण आडवाणी जी और आदरणीय डॉ मुरली मनोहर जोशी जी को अयोध्या में 22 जनवरी 2024 को राम मंदिर के प्राण प्रतिष्ठा कार्यक्रम में आने का निमंत्रण दिया। रामजी के आंदोलन के बारे में बात हुई। दोनों वरिष्ठों ने कहा कि वह आने का पूरा प्रयास करेंगे”:… pic.twitter.com/gF0QEdC80d

— Vishva Hindu Parishad -VHP (@VHPDigital) December 19, 2023

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“The pioneers of the Ram Mandir movement, Advani ji and Murli Manohar Joshi ji were invited to attend the consecration ceremony. Both of them said that they will try their best to come,” the VHP quoted president Alok Kumar as saying on X.

Advani (96) and Joshi, who will turn 90 next month, were at the forefront of the Ram Temple movement that eventually culminated in the Supreme Court deciding the decades-old title dispute case in favour of the Hindu side in a landmark ruling by a five-judge Constitution Bench on November 9, 2019.

The court ruled that the disputed land be given to a trust to build the Ram Janmabhoomi temple. The court also ordered that the Muslim side be compensated with five acres of land to build a mosque.

Before this update, speaking to reporters on Monday, Champat Rai, the general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, said, “Both are elders in the (Sangh) family and considering their age, they have been requested not to come (to Ayodhya for the consecration event). Both have accepted our request.”

(Source – ANI)