President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday offered prayers before Ram Lalla idol in the newly built temple in Ayodhya. In the evening, she watched Maha Aarti at Saryu river ghat. She also visited Hanuman Garhi to pray before Lord Hanuman. This was the President’s first visit to Ayodhya, where she stayed for nearly five hours. For the last several weeks, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had been repeatedly alleging at their election rallies that the President was not invited to the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla idol on January 22, though a large number of dignitaries were invited. Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Keshtra general secretary Champat Rai rejected the opposition’s charge that the President was not invited to the consecration ceremony. Champat Rai said, both President Murmu and former President Ram Nath Kovind were invited and the opposition was spreading falsehood that they were not invited because of their castes. More than 1,300 km away from Ayodhya, in Sabarkantha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Congress on the Ram temple issue.
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Lok Sabha elections in Puri: Just ahead of the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency Sucharita Mohanty has declined to contest the elections and returned the party ticket alleging a lack of funding from the party. Mohanty, daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty in a mail to AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal claimed that her campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied funding.
