A DAY before the start of the consecration rituals for the Ayodhya temple, senior Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh arrived in the town to offer their prayers to the existing Ram Lalla idol at the once disputed site.

While the state Congress leaders were there, on Makar Sankranti day, as per a previously announced programme, a surprise addition was the party’s Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana, Deepender Hooda.

The UP Congress had announced its decision to be in Ayodhya to offer prayers on January 15 soon after the party leadership declared that it would stay away from the consecration ceremony as it had become an “RSS-BJP event”.

The Congress leaders, many of whom took a dip in the Saryu river, to chants of Jai Shri Ram, offered prayers at the Hanuman Garhi temple, and visited the Ram Lalla idol, included AICC general secretary in-charge of UP Avinash Pande, Congress state president Ajay Rai, AICC secretary in-charge of UP Dheeraj Gujjar, and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra, and the party’s national face and PCC member Supriya Shrinate.

The leaders also met Ram Temple chief priest Satyendra Das.

Asked about the party’s visit ahead of the consecration, which the leadership is not attending, the Congress leaders said the two should not be linked. Their visit was mainly to mark the “auspicious day of Makar Sankranti” and part of a usual exercise to visit temples on the day, they claimed.

While UP Congress leaders travelled together from Lucknow, Pande, Hooda and Srinate reached Ayodhya directly, and later left from the town for Delhi.

Pande said: “Every person can come and offer their prayer when they deem fit, and it should not be politicised… Prabhu Ram hamare hridaya mein hain, desh ke kan-kan mein basey hue hain. Prabhu Ram sabke hain (Ram exists in our hearts, in every little thing of this country. He belongs to everyone).”

Rai said: “What’s so different about the 22nd? Jo bhagwan virajman hain, woh pran pratishthit hain ki nahin? Unka darshan karenge (The idol that exists is already consecrated, isn’t it? We are going to visit that).”

A Congress leader said that while the presence of other leaders was as per schedule, they were taken by surprise to see Hooda in Ayodhya.

Hooda cited Makar Sankranti as the reason for his visit, adding that he sought Ram Lalla’s blessings “for the prosperity of all and to make a new beginning”. “This is not my first visit to Ayodhya and the Ram Temple. I visited the temple one year ago too,” he said.

“Tomorrow, we are starting a ‘Ghar Ghar Congress’ campaign in Haryana. We also took Lord Ram’s blessings for that. Makar Sankranti is the right occasion to seek the blessings of Lord Ram when you are are starting something new. The campaign will go on for six months in Haryana,” Hooda told The Indian Express.

On the leadership’s decision, he said: “The party has explained its position… Our party believes in all faiths.”

Asked about her visit, Shrinate, the chairperson of Congress Social Media and Digital Platforms, who is one of the party’s leading voices defending the leadership’s decision to decline the invite for the consecration, said: “The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee had decided to go to Ayodhya on the 15th. I am from Uttar Pradesh, an AICC delegate from UP and also a PCC member. So I went.”

She added that this was completely different from the consecration decision taken by the leadership. “The invite for the January 22 event was for three individuals (Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury). And it was for something which is a political event being done in the garb of a religious ceremony. Today is Sankranti, a huge festival… It is celebrated in different forms across the country. It has been a tradition for a lot of us to go to Ayodhya on this day. I am from eastern Uttar Pradesh. When I am driving from Lucknow to Maharajganj, I stop at Ayodhya frequently… The BJP is not the sole custodian of rituals and religion. Lord Ram’s biggest message is goodness and justice, something that the Bharat Jodo Yatra aims to deliver. I prayed for peace and prosperity for all,” Shrinate said.