India's BJP party revives temple plan ahead of polls

New Dehli: India's main Hindu nationalist opposition yesterday said it will construct a temple, that has been a flashpoint of tension between Hindus and Muslims for years, if the party is voted to power in the ensuing elections.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are meeting in the western city of Nagpur in a last major gathering before taking on the Congress party-led alliance in elections to be held in April and May.

"We will build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and we are waiting for the right opportunity," Rajnath Singh, the party president, told about 8,000 BJP members yesterday.

"No one can alter our resolve."

Some analysts say a BJP victory could swing India to a stronger pro-market agenda after several years of reform stagnation that have investors worried about India's capacity to sustain growth.

India is suffering an economic downturn and food prices have risen sharply, hurting millions of people.

The BJP rose to prominence on the back of a Hindu revivalist campaign that sought the construction of a Ram temple on the site of a 16th century mosque torn down by mobs in 1992.

Hindu hardliners say the mosque was built by Muslim invaders after destroying a Ram temple on the site of the Hindu god's birth.

About 3,000 people were killed after Hindu mobs destroyed the mosque in some of India's worst Hindu-Muslim riots.

Singh said new laws could be formed to speed up construction of the temple, if it won the election.

After winning the general elections in 1999, the BJP was forced to abandon construction plans by its secular coalition allies.

Experts said that move did not go well with its hardline supporters, and the party was now trying to woo them back before the biggest electoral exercise in the world gets underway.

"They are probably beginning to believe that the temple issue can win them votes," Kuldip Nayar, a political analyst, said.

"The shift to the Ram temple issue can hurt the BJP badly."

Others said reviving the temple issue was likely not go down well with its allies.

"The Ram temple was no longer a major election issue, but it seems the party is reviving it before elections," Anil K. Verma, a political commentator, told Reuters. "It could be self-defeating."

Muslim leaders said they had called a meeting on Sunday to discuss the issue.

On Saturday, the Congress also dismissed the BJP claim that it would definitely build a Ram temple at Ayodhya, saying the BJP "doesn't intend to keep its promise" like its earlier pronouncements.

Congress leader Tom Vadakkan, in charge of the party's media cell, described as "yet another lie" Singh's statement that the party was looking for an opportunity to build the Ram temple.

"We have seen it happen earlier. It is yet again a lie," Vadakkan said reacting to the BJP president's statement.

"The BJP doesn't intend to build a temple. They are doing an injustice to the name of Ram, to the cause of Hinduism. They don't intend to keep their promise. The people will give a fitting reply (during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections)," Vadakkan said.