As Ram Mandir gets inaugurated tomorrow, what INDIA alliance leaders — from Rahul to Mamata — will be doing

Having turned down invitations to attend the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on Monday, several parties in the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties, acutely aware of the political minefield that they are navigating, are marking the day in some way.

The parties are caught between the inevitable rock and a hard place as the BJP will frame their absence in political terms. These Opposition parties cannot go to the event as all of them believe the Sangh Parivar has turned it into a political event with the Lok Sabha elections in view. The Congress and the Left have publicly called the consecration ceremony a political event while leaders such as Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar have politely turned down the invitations saying they will visit the temple at a later date. Other INDIA leaders such as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar have remained silent on the issue.

On Monday, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on a Manipur to Mumbai yatra, will be in Nagaon district of Assam. There, he was scheduled to pay a visit to the Batadrava Than/Sattra (monastery) in Nagaon, which is the birthplace of renowned Vaishnavite saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva. But Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi on Sunday said the Batadrava Than Management Committee had “forbidden” Rahul from visiting the shrine. Bordoloi alleged it had been done under pressure from the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government in Assam.

“We are happy that Rahul Gandhi will visit the Than, but tomorrow around 10,000 people will gather here. At that time we do not want Rahul Gandhi to come here, because there may be some difficulties in the process of welcoming him.