In a sharp escalation of Bengal's temple-mosque political duel ahead of the assembly polls, posters appeared across Salt Lake on Thursday announcing plans for an Ayodhya-style Ram temple complex on the metropolis's eastern fringes, promising a school, hospital, old-age home and other welfare facilities.
The posters, attributed to local BJP leader and former local unit president Sanjay Poyra, have come up in City Centre, Karunamoyee and several other prominent pockets of Bidhannagar.
They proclaim that a Ram temple "similar to the Ayodhya structure" will be erected on a four-bigha plot and invite residents to contribute Re 1 each as donation for the project.
The development comes just days after suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir laid the foundation stone of a Babri Masjid-styled mosque in Rejinagar, Murshidabad, on December 6, the anniversary of the 1992 demolition, under unprecedented security.
On the same day, the BJP held a parallel ceremony in Banjatiya's Manindra Nagar, also in Murshidabad, where local leaders initiated groundwork for a Ram temple, taking sharp aim at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "appeasing politics".
With Salt Lake now entering the arena, the battleground has moved close to the state's administrative heart, giving the political tug-of-war an unmistakable symbolic edge.
Speaking to reporters, Poyra described the initiative as a social-spiritual movement rooted in 'Ram Rajya'. -- PTI
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