God beckons, and someone answers: Akhilesh during the consecration of Ram Lalla
Lucknow Akhilesh Yadav, national head of the Samajwadi Party (SP), responded as follows on Thursday when asked whether he will attend the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla idol at Ayodhya on January 22: “When God calls, one goes.”
Speaking with media outside the Samajwadi Mahila Sabha (party’s women wing) convention being held at the state headquarters of the SP at this place was Akhilesh.
Akhilesh said, “We follow the tradition that when God calls, one goes for darshan,” and “I don’t leave home without darshan of God,” when asked whether he would attend the function. There’s God when I open the door; there’s God as I go down the stairs. Tell me now, which God I should approach for darshan.
Akhilesh’s wife, Dimple Yadav, the SP Mainpuri MP, told reporters in Mainpuri on Tuesday, “If we get an invitation (to go to the Ram Temple for Pran Pratishtha), we will definitely go…even otherwise, we will go later,” in response to Ahilesh’s evasive response.
Regarding the controversial remarks made by SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya about Hinduism, such as his recent description of the Hindu faith as “deception” at an event in Delhi on Monday, Akhilesh said, “One should ask the BJP where he had spent five years.” Why didn’t he say anything like this while he was in the BJP? In any case, all of the observations are his own. The Samajwadi Party is open to all faiths.
“The Mahila Sabha should spread this message throughout the state,” Akhilesh said at the Samajwadi Mahila Sabha event. “The SP has given the slogan ’80 harao, BhaJaPa hatao (defeat the BJP on all 80 UP Lok Sabha seats to oust it from power).”
According to Akhilesh, the Samajwadi Party supports integrating women, or “aadhi aabadi,” into the mainstream. “Women must defeat the BJP if they are to preserve their pride and dignity.”
At the conference, the Mahila Sabha national president Juhie Singh, state president Ribu Srivastava, and MP Dimple Yadav of SP Mainpuri reviewed the party’s preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
