Zee Media Bureau
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said Samajwadi Party will make all efforts to stop forces who try to spread communal tension in the state.
Yadav’s comment comes in the backdrop of the Uttar Pradesh government imposing a ban on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s ‘Sankalp Diwas’ in Ayodhya today.
The Samajwadi Party Government has drawn sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over this decision.
Undeterred by the ban, the VHP has said that it will go ahead with its proposed ‘Sankalp Diwas’ to take a resolve for launching an agitation for rebuilding the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Heavy security arrangements are in place in the temple city. Security has been also tightened along Uttar Pradesh’s borders with Bihar and Jharkhand and even Madhya Pradesh.
The state government has arrested more than 1,500 VHP activists in different parts of the state who were trying to reach the temple city of Ayodhya for the ‘Sankalp Diwas’ programme today.
The police arrested BJP MP Yogi Adityanath today from Gonda with his supporters while he was trying to proceed to Ayodhya. Nearly 1200 VHP activists have been taken into custody from Karsevak Puram, Digambar Akhara and Hanuman Garhi of Ayodhya.
The Akhilesh Yadav government in the state has banned the event citing fears of trouble and communal flare-up, but the VHP and Bajrang Dal have said that they will go ahead with the event, as it was their "constitutional and democratic right".
Intelligence reports have suggested that heavy deployment of security and paramilitary forces to prevent the Sankalp Sabha were not enough, as hundreds of VHP workers and sympathisers had already camped in various places in the temple city of Ayodhya.
The Sankalp Sabha has been called to press to demand construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. The saints, VHP and affiliates had held a `84-kosi` and a `Panch Kosi` yatra August-September for the same purpose.
The two events were banned by the Samajwadi Party government in the state and many senior VHP leaders, including Singhal and Praveen Togadia, were arrested.