Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Saturday said the Ram temple at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya will be constructed within the legal framework. Shah was addressing local party office bearers in Jaipur on Saturday where he is currently on a three-day visit.

“The party’s stand is clear and mentioned in the last four Lok Sabha election manifestos,” Shah said, according to PTI. “The temple should be constructed in a legal manner and there should be mutual dialogue.”

On July 13, MP Sanjay Raut, a member of the saffron party’s ally Shiv Sena, had said activists did not consider the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid controversy relevant to their demand for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. “We did not protest for a Ram Mandir with the court’s permission,” the saffron party leader had said.

BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, had however, distanced the party from the Shiv Sena MP’s statements. “The BJP believes in the judiciary of India and will never support such statements,” Vijayvargiya had said.

The Babri Masjid demolition

On December 6, 1992, lakhs of karsevaks gathered at the site had demolished the mosque. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country.

The karsevaks had claimed that the land on which the mosque stood was the birthplace of Hindu god Ram. In May 2017, a CBI court had framedconspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi, in the case.

Amit Shah in Rajasthan

Shah also said the party was in favour of holding state Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously, NDTV reported. “The BJP believes in the concept. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also raised the issue with all political parties for discussion,” he said.