Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Ayodhya; many seers detained

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray

On completion of 100 days in office, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday visited the temple town of Ayodhya and paid obeisance to Ram Lalla at the makeshift Ram Janambhoomi temple here. After the 'darshan' of Lord Ram, Thackeray announced that he would contribute a sum of Rs 1 crore from his personal account for construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The money that he would contribute for construction of the temple would be his own money and not of the state government, he emphasised.

"In the last one-and-half years, I visited Ayodhya thrice and it is by the blessings of Lord Ram that I have become the chief minister of Maharashtra," he said. Apparently taking a dig at Shiv Sena's erstwhile ally BJP, Thackeray said, "It must be a sad day for the people who predicted that his government would not survive for 100 hours, while it has successfully completed its first 100 days." "My government will last its full term," he asserted.

Thackeray reached Ayodhya on Saturday afternoon amid threats by some Hindu seers here that they would greet the Maharashtra chief minister with black flag for forming government with the people, who dubbed Lord Ram as imaginary figure. Thackeray, who heads a tripartite ruling dispensation in Maharashtra with the the NCP and Congress being two other allies of the Shiv Sena-led government, also asserted that there is no change in his party's ideology.

"Lord Ram and Hindutva is not the private property of any political party. I am here in Ayodhya with all my Bhagwa (saffron) supporters," he said. Earlier, hours before Thackeray's arrival here, the Ayodhya administration put three Hindu seers under house arrest for threatening to greet the CM with black flag, said police.

The seers had threatened to greet Thackeray with black flag saying that he has formed government in Maharashtra with the help of those who had dubbed Lord Ram as an imaginary figure. The three seers who were put under house arrest on early Saturday morning are Mahant Raju Das of Hanumangarhi Temple, Mahant Paramhans Das of Tapaswi Chhawni Temple and Rakesh Dutt Mishra, the president of Hindu Mahasabha, said Ayodhya Senior Superintendent of police Ashish Tiwari.

Thackeray reached the temple town on Saturday afternoon. Sources said three teams of police personnel swooped on the houses of the three saints and served them with the adminstration's order to stay in the house arrest and left after deploying a few policemen outside their residences to prevent them from venturing out. After the Maharashtra chief minister paid his obeisance at the makeshift temple, several seers have now raised the demand to wash the entire temple premises with 'Ganga jal' to purify the premises.

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