Fresh tensions surfaced within the ruling NDA on the Ayodhya issue with key allies TDP and Trinamool Congress mounting an attack on BJP's alleged attempts to push the Mandir agenda, but Party President Bangaru Laxman raised a new controversy saying courts cannot ignore the reality of a Ram Temple in the disputed site. A sulking railway minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee spoke out at an 'Iftar' party in Calcutta saying she would not tolerate anyone trying to deviate from the NDA agenda.

“If anyone tries to deviate from the NDA agenda, we will be the last to tolerate it,” she said adding her party favoured a status quo on the Masjid issue. She also disagreed with the Prime Minister's statement that temple construction was an expression of national sentiment. K Yerran Naidu, leader of another major ally, TDP, which supports the government from outside, sharply attacked the BJP chief for his remarks in interviews to newspapers that the Lok Sabha rejection of the censure motion was an endorsement of the Ram Temple movement and even if the courts decided in favour of Masjid, the Ram Temple there could not be disturbed.

He said that the TDP would act as a ‘watch dog’ and would not spare the government if it deviated from the secular agenda. However, Laxman, the man at the Centre of the controversy on Saturday sought to playdown his reported controversial remarks saying he was being quoted out of context in the media.
Bureau Report