Amit Shah invokes Ram Temple, says BJP wants all 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in 2024

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday invoked the Ram Temple crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its construction following the Supreme Court verdict as he told the BJP workers to ensure victory on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Parliamentary elections.

Speaking at an event organised on the occasion of second death anniversary of former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh at Aligarh, Shah said that a victory on all the 80 LS seats for the BJP would be the 'true' tribute to Singh.

''Kalyan Singh sacrificed the post of Chief Minister of UP but did not order firing on the karsevaks in Ayodhya,'' Shah said apparently referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1991 by thousands of 'karsevaks'.

''Congress had created hurdles in the way of the Ram Temple but Narendra Modi, without any delay after the Supreme Court verdict, laid the foundation stone of the temple,'' the minister added.

Shah also said that after 500 years, the idols of Ramlala would be installed in the sanctum-sanctorum of the newly constructed Ram Temple early next year. BJP has been observing the second death anniversary of Kalyan Singh as ''Hindu Gaurav Diwas''.

Shah's remarks assume significance as earlier the UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary had also said that the saffron party aimed to win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state to ''make up for the possible loss of seats elsewhere''.

BJP had won 64 seats with it's electoral allies Apna Dal and Nishad Party in the 2019 general elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party had won 73 seats with its allies.