With an eye on the upcoming by- polls, the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh announced that it would celebrate the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by distributing nearly five lakh packets of laddoos in Sanver SC reserved constituency in Indore district.
However, alleging political gains behind the move, the opposition Congress has demanded that the district administration prevent the BJP from doing so in light of the COVID-19 situation in the state.
"We will celebrate the foundation-laying ceremony for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in a grand manner and as part of it, we will organise religious programmes in all 252 villages of Sanver constituency and distribute five lakh packets of laddoos," the BJP's Indore district unit president Rajesh Sonkar said.
Each and every house in the constituency will be covered in the distribution programme, which will be conducted by following all COVID-19 protocols, he claimed.
In all probability, BJP leader and water resources minister Tulsi Silawat will be contesting by-poll from Sanver, where he won on a Congress ticket in 2018, while former Congress MP from Ujjain Premchand Guddu is also likely to contest from the seat.
Incidentally, both the leaders, who toured Sanver extensively in the last couple of months, had tested positive for COVID-19 infection.
Criticising the BJP's move, Congress spokesman Neelabh Shukla said, "We have full faith in Lord Ram, but the BJP, in order to gain politically, is playing with the lives of people during the COVID-19 pandemic."
The Congress has demanded that the district authorities prevent the BJP from going ahead with the laddoo distribution programme.
