A resolution passed by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya last month seems to have exposed the divide within the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP).

While a section of SP leaders questioned the ruling BJP’s decision to bring in the resolution, others vocally came out in support of it.

Adding to it, Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana’s invite to all the legislators on Tuesday to visit Ayodhya on February 11 for a “darshan” of Ram Temple, has put the Opposition members, especially the SP MLAs in a spot.

On Monday evening, when the resolution thanking PM Modi and CM Adityanath was passed by in the House by a voice-vote, most of the Opposition MLAs nodded their heads approvingly. According to the Speaker, only 14 MLAs voted against the resolution.

There were more than three dozen SP MLAs in the House at the time of the vote, sources said. Notably, the SP, which is the largest Opposition party in the Assembly has over 100 MLAs.

The SP leadership had also not issued any whip or statement to its legislators on the resolution.

On Tuesday, when the House met again, SP MLA Swami Omvesh told the House that he did not oppose the resolution. Speaking on the floor of the House during Question Hour, Omvesh urged the Speaker to rectify the records if it was mentioned that he had opposed the resolution. “Prabhu Shri Ram ke charano mein naman karta hun. Kal maine samarthan mein hath uthaya tha… Mere saath jyati hui hai… Main rojana Shri Ram ka nara lagata hun (Every day, I chant Lord Shri Ram’s name and chant the slogan… I had raised my hand yesterday in support of the resolution… I have been wronged),” the SP MLA said.

A section of SP legislators, however, said the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been constructed on the orders of the Supreme Court and therefore the UP Assembly should not have passed the resolution thanking PM Modi and CM Adityanath for the consecration ceremony.

Later in the day, after Speaker Mahana announced in the House that all the members were invited to visit “Ayodhya Dham”, SP MLA from Sambhal, Iqbal Mahmood, said that if the Speaker was taking all the members to Ayodhya for Ram Temple visit, then all the legislators should also be taken to the place where a mosque is to be built on the orders of the Supreme Court in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi verdict.

“Supreme Court ne hi masjid ke liye bhi jagah di hai. Sadhbhavna ki baat hai. Saath saath masjid ki jagah bhi visit ho jaaye (The Supreme Court had allotted land for the construction of the mosque in Ayodhya. For communal harmony, legislators can also be taken to the place where the mosque is to be built),” MLA Mahmood said.

While inviting all the members to Ayodhya, Mahana said that he had read senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav’s remark that if the Speaker would take MLAs to Ram Temple, he would join them.

“Jo bhi Ayodhya Dham ke darshan karna chahte hain, sabhi ek saath.. Ek message jayega… Kisi ke liye koi forcible nahi hai (Whoever wants to visit Ayodhya Dham with everyone… a message will go to people…. But no one is forced to join),” said Mahana.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who last month had received the invite to attend the January 22 Ram temple opening ceremony, had then said that he would visit the temple with his family after the consecration ceremony. “I will definitely come after the ceremony with my family as worshippers,” he had tweeted.