Bharatiya Janata Party leader Perala Sekharjee on Friday said party President Amit Shah assured Telangana party members that the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya will begin before the 2019 elections, IANS reported.

On December 6, 1992, lakhs of kar sevaks demolished the Babri Masjid, claiming that the land on which the mosque stood was the birthplace of Ram. This triggered communal riots across the country. The karsevaks had claimed that the land was the birthplace of Ram.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

Sekharjee, a BJP National Executive member, said Shah made the statement at a party meet in Hyderabad. “Considering the developments, I believe that construction of Ram temple will begin before the coming general elections,” the party leader quoted Shah as saying.

On June 26, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had assured religious leaders that the temple would be built in Ayodhya. A day later, Union minister Uma Bharti also pushed for the construction of the temple.

The case

Leaders of the BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, led the movement to demolish the mosque. Advani piloted one of many roadshows across India in 1990 to galvanise support to have a temple built at the site of the mosque.

In May 2017, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court granted bail to Advani, Joshi and Bharti accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court’s 2010 verdict granting a three-way division of the land on which the Babri Masjid stood till 1992, when Hindutva activists demolished it. The High Court had ruled that the land be divided equally between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Hindu organisation Nirmohi Akhara, and the deity Ram Lalla (infant Ram), which is represented by the Hindu Mahasabha.