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Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani on Thursday said that the Ayodhya demolition case hearing in the special Central Bureau of Investigation court at Rae Bareli will revive the Ayodhya movement.
"Case se Ayodhya andolan jeevant ho chuka hai... Purani yadein taaza hongi," (Ayodhya movement has been revived due to the case...old memories will be refreshed), Advani told reporters in Lucknow before departing for Rae Bareli to appear before the special judicial magistrate (CBI) court later in the day.
Accompanied by enthusiastic party workers who raised slogans of Jai Shree Ram and Mandir wahin banayege, Advani recalled that he had been associated with the Ayodhya movement since long.
To a question, Advani said the Ram temple issue had never been put on backburner by the BJP. "It was a matter associated with the faith and belief of crores of Hindus," he added.
Former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who also left for Rae Bareli to appear before the same court, said the BJP had never deviated from the temple issue, but owing to compulsions of the coalition it could not pursue the issue when leading the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. "The party, however, will take it up now," he added.
Advani who was accompanied by a cavalcade of senior state party leaders would be given a public reception all through the route to Rae Bareli, BJP sources said.
Besides Advani and Joshi, Uma Bharti, former state BJP president Vinay Katiyar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad supremo Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and Sadhvi Rithambara would be appearing in the special court in connection with the Babri Masjid demolition case.