Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said that the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya should be carried out by President Droupadi Murmu instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The consecration ceremony will be held on January 22, months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. On Friday, Modi claimed that God had chosen him as “an instrument to represent all the people of India” at the consecration ceremony.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, the state’s Governor Anandiben Patel, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and the chief priest of the temple Acharya Satyandra Das will be inside the sanctum sanctorum during the consecration. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, Thackeray on Saturday demanded that since the ceremony is a matter of national pride and is related to the country’s self-respect, the consecration should be performed by Murmu.

The former Maharashtra chief minister said that after the Somnath temple in Gujarat was restored in 1951, the country’s first president Rajendra Prasad had attended the formal restoration ceremony.

The Somnath temple was first attacked in 1026 CE and had been razed multiple times subsequently. However, the temple was restored after independence.

On Friday, a delegation of the Ram Temple trust formally invited Murmu to attend the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.

Thackeray, who will not attend the event in Ayodhya, will instead be at the Kalaram temple in the Nashik district of Maharashtra on January 22.

The temple holds significance as it was here where BR Ambedkar and Marathi social activist Sane Guruji in 1930 had led an agitation to give Dalits access to temples. On Saturday, Thackeray also invited Murmu for the event in Nashik.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress have also said that they will not attend the event as it is being politicised by the BJP for electoral gains ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Ram temple is being built on the site of the razed Babri mosque. The mosque was demolished by Hindutva extremists on December 6, 1992, because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the Hindu deity Ram had been born. The incident triggered communal riots across the country.

Also read: Can an unfinished temple be consecrated? Opinion in Ayodhya is divided