Ram Temple event at Ayodhya is "event management work" of BJP: Congress' Ramesh Chennithala

"Only event management work is going on for the Lok Sabha elections and people understand this. What more proof do you need than that four Shankaracharyas have refused to attend the Pran Pratishtha ceremony? Everyone knows that this is being done to gain political advantage," Ramesh Chennithala told ANI in Nagpur.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, have claimed that the Shankaracharyas have decided against attending the January 22 event after objecting to the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony at an 'incomplete temple'.

The shankaracharyas are the heads of the four Hindu mathas (monasteries) -- in Dwarka (Gujarat), Joshimath (Uttarakhand), Puri (Odisha), and Sringeri (Karnataka) -- that are believed to have been founded by the eighth-century religious scholar and philosopher Adi Shankara.

"The temple is not completed yet, and the four Shankaracharyas are not attending the ceremony, saying that this is a political program. The Prime Minister is consecrating it.Is this not politics?" Chennithala said.

He said that the opposition leaders are not attending the Pran Pratishtha ceremony because it is being organised by the BJP and RSS.

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had "respectfully" declined the invitation extended by Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Trust to attend the 'Pran Prathista' ceremony, alleging that it has been turned into a political programme by the BJP and RSS.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. An idol of Ram Lalla will be enthroned in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

More than 11,000 guests nationwide have received invitations from the Trust for the Pran Pratistha ceremony, with special arrangements underway to provide memorable gifts to all attendees. (ANI)